Earlier this month, Twitter announced that it would soon begin testing its rival Clubhouse, called Audio Spaces. The new product will allow Twitter users to gather in dedicated spaces for live conversations with another person or with groups of people. While the company showed a handful of screenshots of the product at the time of the announcement, there were few specifics about how Audio Spaces would work. We now know a little more about Audio Spaces' feature set, thanks to some excavations as a reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong.
Wong enabled the private beta in the Twitter app and captured screenshots showing what Audio Spaces and its features would have been like in action. Of course, these features may change before the feature is subsequently released to the public, but it gives an idea of how Twitter is currently thinking about the product.
Twitter is testing Audio Spaces Beta internally, here's another thing:
- Use Periscope as a backend
- Reactions: 💯✋✊✌️👋
- "Who can speak" can be adjusted to the center
- Transcripts available
- Spaces can be marked
- "Share feedback" send DM to @TwitterSpaces pic.twitter.com/hbyiJuEWw5
- Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 28, 2020
The images show that users will be able to apply the same kind of conversation controls that are now available for tweets in Audio Spaces as well. This will allow users to configure their audio space to be open to anyone they wish to join, only people who follow or only people they specifically invite to join.
Users can invite others to their space in several ways as well, including via DM (direct message), posting a tweet or copying a link that can be shared elsewhere.
When entering a space, people will enter the space with the microphone muted to limit noise. As the conversation progresses, they can react to what is said with a variety of emojis, such as the "100", raised hand, fist, peace sign, and waving hand.
Furthermore, the creator of Audio Space will be able to decide who can speak at any time after the dedicated room has been created. From an in-app menu, they'll be able to manage speakers, adjust other settings, view rules, as well as share feedback or report space, among other things.
An interesting finding is that Audio Spaces will include chat transcripts, according to this menu. This is a differentiating feature, compared to other audio chat room services. While this is apparently a feature designed for accessibility, it could also come in handy for keeping conversations appropriate and respectful, as users would know their words are being spelled.
This could help solve an issue with the private chat room model, where live conversations proved difficult to moderate. Despite being in an invitation-only beta, Clubhouse, for example, has already experienced a handful of incidents of moderation failure, including harassment of a New York Times reporter and another conversation that delved into anti-Semitism.
Twitter, which has struggled for years to combat abuse on its platform, was a questionable place to test this new unproven format for online socialization.
It wasn't clear how Twitter will approach moderation for these audio chat rooms, but it looks like the transcription feature could be a deterrent to toxic speech while the in-app reporting feature allows for a more direct solution to problems that arise. When users choose the "Report this space" option, they can choose to report in a variety of categories, including self-harm, violence, sexual content, child safety, private information, or offensive behavior.
Since Audio Spaces is in private beta, testers will also have access to a "Share Feedback" option that allows them to DM their @TwitterSpaces account.
Wong also noted that Audio Spaces is using Periscope for its backend, according to what he dug into the app's code.
Twitter previously said Audio Spaces would be launched for a small group of users. During testing, those users included a group of people who are "disproportionately affected by abuse and harms on the platform: women and people from marginalized backgrounds," noted Maya Gold Patterson, Twitter staff product designer, when she introduced the feature in a journalist briefing this month.
Reaching the comment, a Twitter spokesperson said, "We'll have more to share on Spaces closer to the launch of the public beta experiment."
