If you haven’t noticed Tweets from celebrities like Lil Nas X and Lin Manuel Miranda of just their voices, Twitter announced that they’re testing a new ‘voice Tweet’ feature. They state that it “will add a more human touch” to the way people use the social media platform.
Certain Twitter users (mostly celebrities, it looks like) are the lucky few to test the new feature. However, on Twitter’s blog they wrote that it was only given to them who has iOS, not Android. Voice Tweets is expected to be available for everyone with iOS in the coming weeks. The platform did not say when it’s expected to turn up on Android.
According to Twitter’s announcement, you will soon be able to Tweet out your voice by starting a Tweet like normal and writing in your ‘caption’ in the ‘written’ Tweet section. Then, you will have a button next to the area where you choose your photos that resembles an audio-wave.
You can then start recording your audio for up to 140 seconds. Once you’re done, you and can ahead and press ‘Done’. But if you reach the time limit for a Tweet, a new voice Tweet starts automatically to create a thread.
Your Tweet will have a video-like section where you can press on it to listen to the sound. People will see your voice Tweet appear on their timeline alongside other posts.
There’s also an extra perk for iOS users, besides earlier access to the feature as compared to Android users. On iOS, playback will start in a new window docked at the bottom of your timeline where you can listen as you scroll. You can also keep listening while doing other things on your phone or on the go.
“There’s a lot that can be left unsaid or uninterpreted using text, so we hope voice Tweeting will create a more human experience for listeners and storytellers alike,” wrote Twitter in their blog.
It’s already happening with celebrity musicians that have access to the feature now, but you can expect a lot more potentially cool content like first-releases of songs. It’ll also be interesting to see how people will use the new voice feature to their advantage, or disadvantage. Imagine hearing certain world leaders’ voice Tweets.
