Twitter has opened its audio chat room, Spaces, to Android users, the company tweeted Tuesday.
Twitter introduced a limited version of the Clubhouse competitor on iOS in January. While any users of Twitter’s iOS app can join and listen to Spaces, only a few can host them at the moment. Twitter said it was giving Spaces to “a very small feedback group” to start, with women and people from other marginalized groups given priority. Now, users of Twitter’s Android app can join and listen to Spaces as well.
Android folks, our beta is growing! starting today you will be able to join and talk in any Space. SOON you’ll be able to create your own but we’re still working out some things. keep your 👀 out for live Spaces above your home tl
— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) March 2, 2021
The announcement tweet doesn’t mention when Android users will be able to host Spaces; it looks like Android users can speak and listen to conversations in Spaces but not host their own chats just yet. A Twitter spokesperson said in an email to The Verge that both Android and iOS users will be able to start and listen to Spaces “soon.”
Twitter has ramped up its forays into voice-based features over the past several months. In addition to launching Spaces in beta, it introduced audio tweets last June on iOS for a limited number of people, allowing users to record and send audio messages up to 140 seconds long — a nod to the original tweet length of 140 characters. It also introduced support for voice-based direct messages in India last month for both iOS and Android apps.
Twitter faced some criticism for failing to include captions on its audio messages for its users who are deaf and hard of hearing, but it said it would be adding automated captions to audio and video in tweets sometime this year.
