Following the success of the audio chat app, Clubhouse which reached the $1B dollar mark in terms of valuation in less than a year, while still on beta, Twitter recently launched Twitter Spaces for a few select individuals to participate in its beta testing.

All About Spaces on Twitter

Twitter Spaces described by Twitter as a “place to come together, built around the voices of the people using Twitter, your Twitter community”

Just a few days ago, Twitter also announced that it has opened this audio-based chat room to Android users as well and is no longer exclusive on iOS. Users of Twitter’s Android app may now be able to join and listen to Spaces as well.

Initially, any user of Twitter’s iOS app will be able to join and listen to Spaces, but only a few can host them as of the moment. This is because Twitter is giving Spaces to “a very small feedback group” for the meantime and they chose women and people from other marginalized groups to be prioritized in this testing period.

Since it is another version, probably a feature to feature a copy of Clubhouse, it has the following similarities – it allows users to gather with other users or groups of users for live conversations and all these are going to appear in public life while it is happening, but will no longer be available publicly on Twitter once the session ends.

Since Twitter’s audio-based Twitter Spaces dubbed itself as “a small experiment focused on the intimacy of the human voice”, Twitter is going to retain copies of Spaces sessions for a maximum of 30 days. They said they are doing this to be able to review what went on for possible violation of Twitter rules, so it is probably for improvements and developments. Hosts will be able to download copies of their Spaces data for the whole duration of Twitter retaining a copy of it. Even the transcription is downloadable too.

How To Join Twitter Spaces

Twitter Spaces can be accessed above the Home timeline where Fleets also appear and here is how it works – to start a session or “create a space” the user can either tap on his profile image in Fleets, then scroll to the right and tap Spaces; or do a long press on Compose, then tap the new Spaces icon on the left side.

• The user can invite a maximum of ten people to speak, share their thoughts, send emojis, and the usual things.  The user will be able to select who may join with speaking privileges.
• This can be done by choosing from “Everyone”, “People you follow”, or “Only people you invite to speak” which lets the user send DM invites.
• The mic is turned off by default. It will be ready when the user taps Start your Space. Toggling Allow mic access to on will turn on the mic.
• The user may choose whether or not he wants to Share transcriptions by toggling the button on or off.
• This is how the recording starts and the only person who will have permission to end it is the one who created it.

Again, the user will be able to select who can join with speaking privileges by choosing from “Everyone”, “People you follow” and “Only people you invite to speak” (the option that lets you send DM invites) but the privileges can be changed anytime while the Space session is open.

How To Listen on Twitter Spaces

As for listeners, Spaces is currently full public and anyone across the sun will be able to join as a listener. There is no limit on the number of listeners who may be able to join but the person who has opened the Space will have an option to remove, report, and block users in a Space at any time.

Once a user creates a Space, all of their followers may see it in their Fleets. To join a space, a follower or user must find the Space in their Fleets section, select it, and then tap the Join this Space button that pops up. Again, his mic will be off by default.

As of the moment, anyone using Twitter for the iOS app will be able to join a Space, but only select individuals can create Spaces.

Again Twitter is currently in beta and still testing features among what they claim as a “variety of communities” but they intend to “expand the list of people” who can create Spaces very soon.

Beta Testing only happens from the end user’s side, so if it cannot be a fully controlled activity, only honest feedback from real intended users will be able to deliver insights and validate a new application’s functionality, usability, reliability, and compatibility and in Twitter’s case, it is evident that they are sure to follow not just the success but the initial drawbacks of the app they attempted to create their own version with.

It would be like running a test with the test result already available for taking and this only means audio-based purely audio-based platforms may be the return of the classic “radio format” which has thrived for decades even in the absence of visual stimulation.