Renowned micro-blogging and social networking service Twitter Inc. has reportedly launched its audio chat room platform Spaces for Android users. Confirming through a tweet, the American tech giant confirmed that the beta version of Spaces has been extended to Android.

Spaces, which is an upcoming rival to the invite-only audio chat room service Clubhouse, reflects on Twitter’s efforts into voice-based features. Although Clubhouse currently boasts of around 10 million users, it is only available on iOS.

For those unversed, Twitter had introduced audio-based tweets to a controlled number of iOS users, enabling them to record and send audio clips of around 140 seconds, similar to the 140-character tweets.

The company then touted the Clubhouse-like service for users having an iOS device in January, further enabling them to join as well as listen to conversations taking place on Spaces. However, very few users are given access to host conversations.

Like iOS, Android users would also not be allowed to host conversations on Spaces. The company intends to allow only small feedback groups to host conversations on Spaces, prioritizing marginalized groups and women.

Although some reports claim that all iOS and Android users would soon be allowed to host and listen to conversations on Spaces soon. In fact, Twitter has launched voice support on direct messages for both iOS and Android users in India.

Experts keeping track of the development stated that Twitter’s venture into voice-based features has not been easy. The company had faced some criticism for not including captions to the apparent features, especially for users with hearing impairment.

However, Twitter has assured its users that it would launch automated captions for audio and video tweets this year.

Launching Spaces for Android users could provide Twitter a significant advantage over Clubhouse since Android is currently the largest mobile operating system. Moreover, having a large global user base can also provide Twitter leverage to increase the visibility of Spaces.

Source Credits –

https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/twitter-brings-its-clubhouse-rival-spaces-to-android-but-conditions-apply/2205737/lite/