What is Twitter Spaces? How the social network’s audio room works

Spaces, Twitter’s new feature that allows you to create voice chat rooms, arrived on Android on Tuesday (2nd March 2020). The feature was being tested on iPhone (iOS) since the end of last year and, from now on, any user of the social network can participate in a Spaces as a listener. The feature is available in the Fleets at the top bar of the app, where live voice chats are distinguished by a purple circle.

Twitter’s Audio Spaces should work in a very similar way to Clubhouse, the voice calling app that has become very popular in recent weeks. In the list below, Techidence brings you four questions and answers about Twitter’s new feature and compares it to the new audio social network available only for iPhone.

1. What is Twitter Spaces?

Twitter Spaces

Spaces is a new Twitter feature that allows you to create “spaces” to interact with friends via live voice chat. The option, announced by the microblog late last year, focuses on creating conference rooms to communicate with followers in a more personal way. Any Twitter user can participate in the rooms, which are available in the Fleets bar at the top of the app. However, until now only a select group of accounts can create Spaces.

2. How do Twitter Spaces work?

To create a room in Spaces, simply tap and hold the feather icon to write a tweet. Then select the Spaces feature icon, located on the left side of the screen. The feature is active as long as the rooms are open, meaning that as soon as the conference is ended, Spaces is also stopped. There is no limit to the number of users that can participate as conference listeners, but each room can have a maximum of ten speakers, who are the users invited to speak.

READ:  7 Best Free Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom

When creating a Spaces, the room host can also choose who will have speaking privileges, which can be open to “any participant” as a speaker, “people you follow,” and “only people you invite to speak.” After defining the settings, tap on “Start your Spaces” to begin your conference in Spaces. The function also allows you to set the transcription feature, which can play the audio content in the text.

For now, all Spaces created are set to “public” and can be shared via links. It is easy to recognize profiles with active rooms in Spaces because the conferences are available in the Fleets bar and are distinguished by a purple circle around the user who created the room.

3. How do I use Spaces as a listener?

  • Step 1: When you find a tweet with Spaces, tap on the banner. Then press the “enter this space” option to join the audio room;
  • Step 2: In the Twitter space, you can press the microphone icon in the lower-left corner to ask for permission to speak. To check the profile of Spaces participants, just tap on the account icon;

You can share a Spaces invite link via DM or paste the URL into another application of your choice. The heart in the options bar allows you to react to what is being said. The reaction is displayed next to your profile picture in the participant’s section of Spaces;

You can also access the Spaces settings and enable live audio transcription;

The “Adjust settings” section allows you to adjust the subtitles of the space. The “Exit” option is for leaving the audio room. You can navigate through the Twitter application and control the room from the bottom bar. To exit the room, press the X icon.

READ:  Clubhouse: The Invite Only Audio Social Media App

4. Who can use Spaces?

Twitter Spaces

Initially, the feature was only available to Twitter iPhone users, and earlier this month the feature was released to Android users. For the time being, the feature has not yet been released to everyone and the creation of Spaces rooms is restricted to a select group of accounts. However, any user can join the conferences as a listener.

5. What is the difference between Spaces and Clubhouse?

Twitter’s new feature and Clubhouse, the social network that has taken off in recent weeks, have very similar functions and very similar motives. Both allow you to create rooms to discuss various topics of interest, and any other user can join the groups to participate as a listener of the conversation – as if it were a podcast in real-time. On both platforms, at the end of the voice chat, the group is no longer visible when it is closed, which increases the feeling of exclusivity of the participants.

Clubhouse

It is not yet clear how the interaction between listening participants on Spaces will work during audio calls. In Clubhouse, any member of the chat can “raise their hand” and ask for the floor by clicking on an emoji. It is up to the room moderator whether or not to accept the request. On Spaces, what is known is that up to ten people can participate as speakers.

The voice chat social network and Twitter’s new tool are still new platforms. The former, still in beta testing, has not even been made available on Android and works via invitations. In the latter, the creation of rooms is only allowed to a few selected users. The good news is that anyone can join Spaces rooms as a listener, with no limit on the maximum number of participants per chat. On Clubhouse, however, the live chats are restricted to the first 5,000 users who join the rooms.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Advertisment

Want to stay up to date with the latest news?

We would love to hear from you! Please fill in your details and we will stay in touch. It's that simple!