Twitter begins rolling out audio tweets on iOS

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Twitter begins rolling out audio tweets on iOS

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Twitter is rolling out a new type of tweet — audio tweets — to its platform, allowing users to share thoughts in audio form inside their feeds. The feature will only be available to some iOS users for now, though the company says all iOS users should have access “in the coming weeks.” No word on an Android or web rollout yet.

For users with access to the new feature, the process is pretty straightforward. Users can write a new tweet as they normally might, but now, alongside options to attach a photo or video, there’s a new button where users can record a quick audio message. Twitter shared the full workflow in a tweet from the company’s official account.

You can Tweet a Tweet. But now you can Tweet your voice!

Rolling out today on iOS, you can now record and Tweet with audio. pic.twitter.com/jezRmh1dkD

— Twitter (@Twitter) June 17, 2020

 

Twitter’s brevity has always been a ceiling that the social network has seemed to push up against with new products. In 2017, the company announced it was expanding the limits on tweets from 140 to 280 characters. This feature potentially allows for much longer thoughts to be shared on the service, limiting audio clips to 140 seconds. For users chatting away when the limit is reached, instead of being cut off, a new tweet will be threaded beneath the original allowing the thoughts to continue pouring out.

The limit is still an interesting one, indicating that Twitter isn’t racing to turn into a podcast platform, but is instead hoping this feature can enable a new type of communication that fits into the existing conversation flows.

“Over the years, photos, videos, gifs, and extra characters have allowed you to add your own flair and personality to your conversations,” a blog post from Twitter announcing the feature reads. “But sometimes 280 characters aren’t enough and some conversational nuances are lost in translation. So starting today, we’re testing a new feature that will add a more human touch to the way we use Twitter – your very own voice.”

Audio has been a rolling trend in social networking. Over the past couple years, podcasts have become a hotter space with companies like Spotify investing heavily in startups and content acquisition. Recently investors in Silicon Valley raced to fund Clubhouse, an audio-based social network that has gathered a lot of attention over the past several months.

Clubhouse voice chat leads a wave of spontaneous social apps

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via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com

June 17, 2020 at 03:33PM