Twitter introduces Spaces

Last year Twitter introduced Spaces which is live audio conversations on Twitter. Since then, they’ve been building and testing with a limited group, and have found that hearing people’s voices bring conversations on Twitter to life in a completely new way.

Since they’ve been building this, the ability to create a Space has become available to millions of people, and Twitter continued to make improvements based on feedback. Today, they’re bringing the ability to host a Space to all accounts with 600 or more followers on Twitter. Based on what has been learnt so far, these accounts are likely to have a good experience hosting live conversations because of their existing audience. Before bringing the ability to create a Space to everyone, Twitter focused on learning more, making it easier to discover Spaces, and helping people enjoy them with a great audience.

People already come to twitter to talk about what’s happening. You’ve always followed people for their Tweets, now Spaces lets you hear their voices and talk about what’s happening now and what’s most important to you – live. From Tweeting to talking, reading to listening, Spaces encourages and unlocks real, open conversations on Twitter with the authenticity and nuance, depth and power only the human voice can bring.

Spaces are for small and intimate conversations with just a few others, or for big discussions about what’s unfolding right now with thousands of listeners. From connecting to your favorite musician to a post-show about the game or a recap of news that just dropped, dig into the topics and conversations you care about with people you know and people you want to know.

How Spaces work

On Twitter for iOS and Android, when someone you follow starts or speaks in a Space, it’ll appear at the top of your timeline as a purple bubble for as long as it’s live. When you join a Space as a listener, you can react to what you hear with emojis, check out any pinned Tweets, follow along with captions, Tweet or DM the Space, or request to speak.

Captions in a Space

When you join a Space as a speaker, in addition to talking, you can pin Tweets to the Space, turn on captions so everyone can follow along with what you’re saying, and Tweet the Space so your followers can join.

Tweets in a Space you’re speaking in

When you create a Space, you’re in control – who’s speaking, the topics, and the vibe. Invite people to join by Tweeting or DM’ing them to jump in and then invite them to speak directly from your Space. From there, talk about whatever is happening in your world.

How to invite people to speak

It’s important to us that people feel safe hosting and participating in Spaces conversations – that’s why we’ve built in safety controls available to hosts and speakers. For example, as a host, you can mute speakers and take away their mic, or remove them from the Space completely. Recently, we added the ability for Hosts to mute all speakers at the same time and a new management page for easier hosting.

Now you can mute everyone in your Space

Anyone can report and block others in the Space, or report the Space. Also, people you’ve blocked can’t join a Space you’re hosting, and you’ll see labels and warnings if someone you’ve blocked is speaking in a Space you join

You can learn more about how Spaces work here.

Your Feedback + What’s Next

Your feedback has been key in helping us build and improve Spaces over the past several months. We’ve been testing and building in the open with you via @TwitterSpaces, because we’re interested in incorporating your feedback early and often. For example, you told us you wanted more audience management controls, so we built them. You told us you wanted a way to show you are laughing during a Space, so we added an emoji. Here’s more of what’s coming, based on your feedback:

Ticketed Spaces. Hosts put time and effort into creating space for conversation, connection and fun. Now, we’re working on a way for hosts to be rewarded for the experiences they create by getting monetary support, while providing listeners with exclusive access to the conversations they care about most. Hosts can set ticket prices and how many are available to sell. A limited group will be able to host Ticketed Spaces in the coming months. Hosts earn the majority of the revenue from ticket sales and Twitter will keep a small amount as well.

Schedule and set reminders. To make it easy to track what’s happening and when, you’ll also be able to schedule and set reminders for upcoming Spaces in the coming weeks. This way, people don’t miss hearing from their faves.

Host with others. Co-hosting with other people to help manage speakers, participants, and if you need to leave, to pass hosting to one of your co-hosts.

Better accessibility. Improvements to live captions so they can be paused, customized, and are more accurate. More about our work to make Spaces accessible for everyone here.

More ways to find Spaces. More ways to find and drop into Spaces across Twitter – join a Space from a purple bubble around someone’s profile picture in your Home timeline when they’re live. We’re testing this now.

Spaces is where live audio conversations happen. And it’s just getting started. Listen up, stay tuned and let us know what you think @TwitterSpaces. We like how it’s shaping up, but there is much more to come.