TWITTER has introduced Space, which is now available to all Twitter accounts with 600 or more followers. Spaces is an innovation on the popular conversation platform that allows audio-only voice chat. A Twitter subscriber can host and stream voice chats with other Twitter users much like a live podcast. Followers of that person can either listen in or become part of the conversation.
Based on what was learned at the testing stage, these Twitter accounts with 600 or more followers are likely to have a good experience hosting live conversations because of their existing audience. Before bringing the ability to create a Space to everyone, the developers at Twitter focused on learning more, making it easier to discover Spaces, and helping people enjoy them with a great audience.
Last year, Twitter experimented with Spaces. The beta testing revealed that including people’s voices in Spaces has brought conversations on Twitter to life in a completely new way. The most significant the experiments on Spaces is called “Ticketed Spaces” allowing hosts to monetize their Spaces allowing them to charge a fee. A limited group of users will be able to test the feature very soon.
Here’s what Twitter has to say about Spaces:
“You’ve always followed people for their Tweets, now Spaces lets you hear their voices and talk about what’s happening now and what’s most important to you — live. From Tweeting to talking, reading to listening, Spaces encourages and unlocks real, open conversations on Twitter with the authenticity and nuance, depth and power only the human voice can bring.” Currently, Spaces is available on iOS and Android only.
Spaces are for small and intimate conversations with just a few others, or for big discussions about what’s unfolding right now with thousands of listeners. From connecting to favorite musicians to a dissecting a game or a recap of news that just dropped, dig into the topics and conversations hosts care about with people they know and people who may listen to the conversation.
Twitter details how it works: “It starts when someone you follow starts or speaks in a Space, it’ll appear at the top of your timeline as a purple bubble for as long as it’s live. When you join a Space as a listener, you can react to what you hear with emojis, check out any pinned Tweets, follow along with captions, Tweet or DM the Space, or request to speak. Ongoing Spaces appear at the top of your feed in a purple bubble, among Twitter Fleets. To create a Space, tap on the Tweet button and tap the Spaces icon. If you don’t see the icon, the Spaces feature may not be available to you just yet.”
Twitter explained the various roles in Spaces. “When you join a Space as a speaker, in addition to talking, you can pin Tweets to the Space, turn on captions so everyone can follow along with what you’re saying, and Tweet the Space so your followers can join. When you create a Space, you’re in control — who’s speaking, the topics, and the vibe. Invite people to join by Tweeting or DM’ing them to jump in and then invite them to speak directly from your Space. From there, talk about whatever is happening in your world.”
And Twitter also puts a premium of personal safety as a host. It said: “It’s important to us that people feel safe hosting and participating in Spaces conversations — that’s why we’ve built in safety controls available to hosts and speakers. For example, as a host, you can mute speakers and take away their mic, or remove them from the Space completely. Recently, we added the ability for Hosts to mute all speakers at the same time and a new management page for easier hosting.”
