Twitter confirms Spaces is coming to desktop web browsers
Twitter has confirmed to The Verge that Spaces will soon be available on web browsers. This will allow users to access Spaces from their desktop PCs and laptops. Spaces is an audio-only chat room integrated within Twitter. The feature made its debut in June 2020 in Twitter's iOS app. It was made available to Android users last month.
Spaces could look like this on the web
Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher, posted an image on Twitter showing the design of Spaces for web browsers. The image shows that the feature will appear as a large card on Twitter. This card will show all the information about the chat room including the speakers and listeners in it. However, Twitter is yet to reveal the final design.
Tweet showing design of Spaces for web
Understanding Twitter's audio-only chat room
Spaces is a drop-in audio conversation platform. You can join a chat room, listen to the discussion, and request to be a speaker. You can also create your own chat room, invite speakers to it, and allow people across the globe to listen to your discussion. There are three privacy options: Public, Followers, and Private.
Twitter Spaces is similar to Clubhouse
Notably, Clubhouse was the first app to introduce audio chat rooms. The app developed by Alpha Exploration Co. became an instant hit upon its arrival. Twitter wasted no time in coming up with a similar feature, Spaces. Meanwhile, Clubhouse is currently available only on iOS through an invite-only basis. However, Clubhouse has recently announced that it is working on an Android app as well.
Other social-media platforms are also working on audio chat rooms
Looking at the success of Clubhouse and Spaces, major social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook are planning to launch their own versions of audio chat rooms to increase user engagement and in turn, revenue. Slack and Spotify are also looking to jump the bandwagon of drop-in audio conversation platforms.
