What you need to know
- Twitter Spaces is finally rolling out to more people.
- Android users now have the ability to host an audio chat if their account has reached a certain follower criterion.
- Spaces was announced late last year as an alternative to Clubhouse, which remains an iOS exclusive.
After months of testing, Twitter is finally unleashing its latest feature, Spaces, upon the masses. In a blog post today, it was announced that the ability to host a group chat in Twitter Spaces is available to anyone on mobile, including the best Android phones.
As part of the announcement, Twitter has indicated that the feature still has one limitation: to host an audio chat, a user's account must have at least 600 followers.
Based on what we've learned so far, these accounts are likely to have a good experience hosting live conversations because of their existing audience.
Twitter Spaces was first announced in December as an alternative to the popular iOS app, Clubhouse. It has been in testing ever since, with a beta version opening up to Android users in March. That allowed Android users to join in on existing spaces, but the ability to create a Space was still limited to iOS users.
To use Twitter Spaces, users can join a Space by selecting one of the purple bubbles at the top of their feed where they'll also find Twitter Fleets. On iOS, hosting a space requires a long-press of the compose button, which is likely how it works on Android.
Twitter also announced new features that it's adding to Spaces, including "Ticketed Spaces." This will allow hosts to set prices for a chat that they put together and the number of available tickets. Twitter ensures that hosts will receive the majority of the revenues they make from ticket sales.
Source: Twitter
Other features in the works include scheduled Spaces, co-hosting, improvements to live captions, and the ability to join a Space from a profile picture on the feed. You can read more about Twitter Spaces and its upcoming features on the company blog.
The news comes as Clubhouse announces its own beta for Android is currently in testing. Clubhouse has been an iOS exclusive while other apps and platforms like Facebook have taken to introducing their own Clubhouse-like features. Unfortunately, this inability to launch an Android app before everyone else may have led to an alleged slowdown in Clubhouse users:
Clubhouse downloads have fallen to 922,000 in April, according to new data from @SensorTower. The app had 2.7 million in March and 9.6 million in February. This is a major, major slowdown.Clubhouse downloads have fallen to 922,000 in April, according to new data from @SensorTower. The app had 2.7 million in March and 9.6 million in February. This is a major, major slowdown.— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) May 3, 2021May 3, 2021
