Product Hunt launches redesigned iPhone app with 3D Touch, podcast playback, better discovery, more
Originally launched as a way to vote on new technology products, Product Hunt has since greatly expanded to include media like podcasts and books as well as games and other content.
Context & Ripple Effects
Product Hunt spent 2015 widening what its upvote feed covers: an April iOS update added collections and bookmarking inside the app, and a November homepage redesign pushed discovery beyond tech products. Today's iPhone app rebuild carries that same expansion onto the phone — native podcast playback, 3D Touch shortcuts, and reworked discovery put audio and non-tech categories where the voting audience already is.
The move matters because Product Hunt is no longer just a launch-day list; the related coverage shows the brand stretching into media formats and, within months of this app, a dedicated Amazon shop for items it features.
First-order effects
- iPhone users can now play podcasts directly in the app instead of bouncing out to another player, and 3D Touch gives quick access to actions from the home screen.
- The discovery improvements extend the November web-only redesign to mobile, so books, games, and podcasts get equal billing with apps in the core product.
Second-order effects
- Commerce platforms have an incentive to plug into the expanded catalog — Amazon's later shop for Product Hunt-featured items treats the feed itself as a merchandising surface.
- Apple's own move toward editorial curation, culminating in the redesigned App Store with a Today section, raises the bar for any discovery app whose pitch is surfacing what's worth trying.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, community-voted feeds evolve into multi-format curation brands — newsletters like Product Hunt's Sip beta point the same direction — competing less on listings and more on trusted taste across categories.
- Vote-driven discovery becomes infrastructure others build storefronts and editorial programs on top of, shifting value from hosting the list to owning the audience's attention.
The trend: Community-voting platforms are broadening from tech-product lists into multi-format curation brands distributed across mobile apps, audio, email, and retail partnerships.