Twitter Spaces – what are they?

If you’re still waiting for an invite to Clubhouse, don’t worry, you can now chat with your followers on Twitter.

Twitter has opened up its voice chat feature, Spaces to all users with at least 600 followers. Spaces is an audio-only voice chat feature that lets a host stream voice chats with other Twitter users. Audience members can either listen in or become part of the conversation.

Twitter started testing the Spaces feature at the end of 2020 following the tremendous popularity that Clubhouse garnered after its launch.

Unlike Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces is more accessible to a wider audience as there is no need for an invite. All you need is a Twitter account.

Are Spaces public?

Twitter says that for now, all Spaces are public like just like Tweets, which means they can be accessed by anyone. They will automatically appear at the top of your Home timeline, where you see Fleets, and each Space has a link that can be shared publicly. Since Spaces are publicly accessible by anyone, it may be possible for people to listen to a Space without being listed as a guest in the Space.

Accessible feature

Apart from being free to use and no invite needed, Spaces can be accessible and inclusive for visually impaired users. That is provided the host of a Space remembers to turn the feature on. The first time you host or speak in a Space, Twitter will request your consent for having your speech captioned. This will allow users to view live subtitles while listening to a Space (they have to choose “show captions” within their Space settings).

As we have seen over time, many people forget to include descriptive text when uploading images and videos, we hope that hosts of Spaces make use of this invaluable feature.

How do you start a Twitter Space?

• Open the Twitter app on iOS or Android 
• Make sure you’re in the home feed 
• Long press the compose tweet icon 
• Tap on the purple Spaces icon (the icon resembles a number of circles in a diamond shape) 
• Name your Space 
• Tap “Start your Space” 
• Invite others to join as listeners by sharing a link 
• Invite listeners to speak by tapping on their profile image in the Space and adding them as a speaker 

Joining do you join a Space

To join a Space, all you need to do is tap on the link shared by the host. 

From there, you can toggle captions on and off with the “View Captions” button and request permission to speak in a Space by tapping the “Request” icon below the microphone.

Happy talking!