For the longest time, Twitter has become a dormant micro-blogging platform. It’s fairly successful at being one. But beyond being able to share photos and videos, and if we factor in changes in Facebook and Instagram, it’s clear that Twitter has to play catch up if it wants to stay afloat. And one way it plans to take the “What’s happening?” tagline to a new level is by introducing Twitter Voice.
Coming before Twitter Fleets and Twitter Spaces, this new feature brings anything that’s happening around into a clearer foreground. Twitter’s new features do add a different identity and characteristics in the way we start conversations on the platform. So, what does it do? How do you record Twitter Voice and how can you drive interaction and engagements using it?
Read also: How To Use Twitter App: A Starter’s Guide
Inside This Article
Can You Tweet Audio?
Twitter Voice is not necessarily in competition with a similar feature on other social media giants. Introduced in July 2020, this feature allows any user to record his or her voice and share the recording in a similar fashion anyone would share a tweet. However, it does bring the text tweet to life because we now are able to get a glimpse of the author’s emotion behind the text. So, if you are worried that your message might get misinterpreted, this feature is for you.
Twitter has rolled out a number of new features in 2020 and Twitter Voice Tweets is one of them. Using this feature, you can tweet audio or voice that’s two minutes and 20 seconds long. This is a great tool for when you have a fleeting thought and you want to share it with your circle.
How to Post a Twitter Voice
Sharing a Twitter voice message is very much like composing a tweet. Here’s how to do one:
- Open your Twitter app.
- On the Timeline tab, tap the Compose New Tweet icon.
- Next, tap the Twitter Voice icon.
- On the next screen, tap the Record button.
- To pause the recording, just tap the Record button again. If you’re done recording, tap Done.
- Tap Tweet to share the audio.
On iOS, when you tap on a Twitter Voice tweet, the audio will play on a dock at the bottom of the screen. You can also add threads below the voice tweet if you have more things to add.
More About Twitter Voice Tweets
More than a regular tweet, Twitter Voices brings more color to anything we share. It is a great feature to its core especially if we really want to know what the author intends to say beyond the black and white text.
Voices are visibly attached to a regular tweet. It is quite distinct from other tweets because it has your image icon on it with a pulse indicating the audio’s presence. In case a recording exceeds the limit of two minutes and 20 seconds, Twitter automatically creates a thread for the spilled-over recordings. That means if you click on the first recording, Twitter will automatically play the next Voice in the thread.
What we like about the Twitter Voice interface is that it is not intrusive — the same convenience we get out of the picture-in-picture feature. The audio will play in a dock player at the bottom of the screen if you click on a Twitter Voice tweet. This will allow any user to listen to the audio and scroll through his/her Timeline feed.
Read also: How To Use Picture-in-Picture on Android Phones
In addition to playing the Voice tweet, you will also get to see how many users have played the audio by the play count ticker on the screen. And finally, tweets with audio messages can be forwarded via direct message. This extension is nothing new because we all share tweets as a direct message. On top of this, Twitter Voices can also be shared as Fleets. The audio will not play when shared as Fleet but if you click on it, will lead you directly to the tweet where the audio can be played.
Is Twitter Voice Available for Android and iOS?
Always ask before giving your opinion. pic.twitter.com/ofNEz1k1lV
— Gary Henderson (@GaryLHenderson) May 18, 2021
As is with anything beta, Twitter Voice was first made available to a limited number of Twitter users when it was launched in July 2020. During this phase, it was apparent that the feature was available to Twitter for iOS users and yielded positive reviews. Not long after, the feature was rolled out to a limited Twitter for Android users. However, since July 2020 and since this writing, the feature has yet to be rolled out to all Twitter users.
Twitter for Android users will find that they can use other features like Twitter Fleets and Spaces with no problem.
On this note, we think it’s worth mentioning that while we all can’t produce Twitter Voices and Spaces using the web version of the platform, we can all listen to these audio features. However, Fleets are out of the question. Meaning, there is no way for us to view Fleets on the web version.
What Are Twitter Voice Messages?
Twitter Voice Messages is an extension of Twitter Voice tweets. This feature is not largely available to the public. In February 2021, the Voice Messages feature has been trialed to some Android and iOS users in Japan, Brazil, and India. This feature is largely available in the direct message feature of the platform. With this, you get to send voice notes instead of just text messages — giving the DM feature a new flair.
Takeaway
Social media giants are always coming up with new ways to make their platforms relevant and reflective of the needs of users. If you didn’t know any better, social media giants might come up with similar features if only to outdo the other. At the end of the day, no platform wants to fall back and risk dying in the way Friendster did.
Adding Twitter Voices in the way conversations can take place in the Twitter environment is a smart move. Micro-blogging is fun but it does not have to be confined to the 280-character black-and-white text tweet. And as we have said, it does add character to the tweet. No more misinterpreting the motive or emotion behind the tweet.
