Twitter Spaces rolls out to anyone with 600+ followers talking this week

Originally published on O2’s internal Workplace on 4 May

Spaces is a new way to have live audio conversations on Twitter and appears in the section at the top of your timeline alongside Live and Fleets.

I recently joined in the audience of a Twitter Space and it was a great experienced vs Clubhouse which it has been compared to. Overview:

• Scheduling and co-hosting features
• Ability to promote in advance
• It has accessibility features, including the ability to pause and edit live captions
• Brand Safe environment
• Can soon sell “tickets” to listen in to a live space. Twitter will take an undisclosed cut.
• Opportunity to pin tweets to the top of the chat
• Able to encourage subscriptions via Notifications
• Can leave the Space running in the background to listen to whilst exploring the rest of the platform

Although Clubhouse attracted a lot of attention and celebrities such as Drake, Oprah Winfrey, Keir Starmer and Mark Zuckerberg, and was praised for its intimacy in conversation and easy low production value (eg compared to podcasts), its downloads have now dwindled.

Clubhouse is still invitation-only and not available for Android users. It’s been criticised with regard to online safety, hate speech and accessibility, plus its 2M daily active users is small in comparison to Twitter’s 192m.

It recently brought in tipping so that creators can make money on the platform (similar to others like Twitch). Twitter is working on something similar — super follows, a feature that will allow users to charge for access to exclusive content on the platform, and in-app tipping.

Social audio is a popular trend and the other platforms are also on the case!

• Facebook recently previewed a number of audio-only features including live audio rooms across groups and messenger, where users can engage in topical discussions. They also announced tools that allow podcast creators to share long-form audio, a new Spotify integration for music and a brand-new short-form experience called Soundbites.
• Instagram now allows users to broadcast audio-only live streams — it allows users to mute their microphones and turn their video off while using Instagram Live.
• Reddit and LinkedIn are working on new audio features.

Another one to watch… Discord has been present in this space for a while. It’s a group-chatting platform originally built for gamers that has since become a general use platform for many kinds of communities. Sony have just announced investment and a partnership with Discord to bring the chat app to PlayStation.

How do you think we can use social audio more for O2? Some thought starters…

• Priority rooms
• Q&As with your favourite music artist or sportsperson eg special edition of O2 Inside Line Live
• O2 Blue Door live podcast
• Disney+ movie launch review show
• Greener tech tips with influencers