This month, Twitter has been rolling out one of its newest features: Twitter Spaces. Described on their about page as “a place to come together, built around the voices of the people using Twitter, your Twitter community,” Spaces is essentially a live audio chat room. Its release comes not too long after the release of Twitter Fleets, which is the 24-hour story viewing feature that we’re familiar with on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest. The difference between Spaces and Fleets is the step into unknown territory. This type of live audio interaction has only been available on social media apps like Clubhouse, which is still very new and exclusive. Twitter is helping to pave the way for a new type of mainstream online communication with Spaces and I think it might be here to stay.
After joining a few Spaces on Twitter and seeing how it worked, I saw why it could catch on. Although the feature is still only in test mode, I found everything to work very well. I was able to locate live Spaces through the people I followed or through hashtags. Room sizes can vary in Spaces. Some have thousands of people, others have just a handful. In Spaces with a significant number of members, the host gave speaking privileges to only a select few so that chaos wouldn’t ensue. When entering a Twitter Space, your default position is set to “listener.” You can request to be a speaker and converse with other fellow speakers in a room or you can just listen to what is being said.
In a social media world where visuals dominate, it can seem strange to focus heavily on audio-only content. However, I find that creativity can shine in Spaces. Since audio takes much less bandwidth compared to video and other media, more people can participate in one live session with little to no hiccups in quality. By taking advantage of this high-interaction platform, people can get innovative in all sorts of ways. I’ve observed singing talent shows, debates about pop culture, and random bits of banter occurring in these Twitter Spaces. All of it is highly entertaining, even as just a spectator.
I think that audio entertainment is making a comeback these days. Although radio may no longer be the mainstream form of how news and music are consumed by people, I’ve noticed podcasts and voice messages becoming more and more popular. There are so many ways to express yourself online and starting a podcast doesn’t require the same fancy equipment and effort that starting a YouTube channel does. Baring our faces to others, especially strangers, can be intimidating. This is why I think audio-sharing has found its own place in social media spaces. I’ve also found myself sending more audio messages in place of text messages when I have something lengthy or animated to say. Our voices can convey a lot of emotion so I find audio content to be a fun medium.
In times when human contact is still limited, hearing a voice can be a comforting thing. While photo and video-sharing will always be around, I think that audio-sharing is such a creative mode of expression and communication. Twitter Spaces may seem like just a passing fad to some, but I believe that it is just one of the first of many interactive audio-sharing experiences we will be participating in online.