Twitter Rolls Out New Voice Tweets Feature

[hagjohn]

Really? I really hate the video centric of things these days. Want to skim a news article, nope, its a video with no text. I do not always have the ability to sit and listen to things and I'm not even remotely interested in the boring aspects of people's lives.

 

[RSmith2023]

Can you imagine Trump VOICE tweeting?! This should be good! 🤣
[automerge]1592423202[/automerge]

I accidentally mentioned a specific person whom I am excited to see use this technology and my comment was, correctly, removed.

I accidentally just did the same thing. Let’s see how quickly it meets a dramatic end. 🤣

 

[lunarworks]

Just what we need. All those angry boomers screaming about what they're upset about today.

 

[Pirate!]

Really? I really hate the video centric of things these days. Want to skim a news article, nope, its a video with no text. I do not always have the ability to sit and listen to things and I'm not even remotely interested in the boring aspects of people's lives.

This, a thousand times over.

 

[BWhaler]

I don’t think Twitter understands anymore what made Twitter popular in the first place.

 

[mike...]

What they hell is the point of that? I'll just be ignoring any voice Tweets. I can read Tweets quietly anywhere, but not listen to Tweets.

 

[quietstormSD]

Imagine Trump using this?

 

[rschech13]

Can't wait for the irony voice posters. But good for accessibility nonetheless!
[automerge]1592428459[/automerge]

What they hell is the point of that? I'll just be ignoring any voice Tweets. I can read Tweets quietly anywhere, but not listen to Tweets.

The point is having the option...

 

[zenwave]

Our transition to a post-literate society continues unabated...

Twitter today announced the launch of a new feature that's designed to allow people to tweet with their voice, sending voice-based messages instead of text.

Voice tweets can be created by opening up the tweet composer and tapping the new wavelengths icon. From there, a screen opens with a user's Twitter icon, which can be tapped to begin a recording.

Twitter users can capture up to 140 seconds of audio, but continuous recording is possible and longer audio will create multiple voice tweets.

Voice tweets will appear on the Twitter timeline just like other tweets. Listening to a voice tweet can be done by tapping on the image, and on iOS, playback starts in an audio player that's docked at the bottom of the timeline users can continue to scroll through Twitter.

Twitter is testing voice tweets with a limited number of people on Twitter for iOS at the current time, but the company says that in the coming weeks, everyone on iOS should be able to send voice tweets.

Article Link: Twitter Rolls Out New Voice Tweets Feature

 

[simonmet]

Can you imagine Trump VOICE tweeting?! This should be good! 🤣
[automerge]1592423202[/automerge]

I accidentally just did the same thing. Let’s see how quickly it meets a dramatic end. 🤣

Wait, the Orange One is getting censored now? Cue outrage!

 

[Deliro]

Yikes. Just another reason to not go on that virtue signaling toxic platform. It’s just a contest on who’s more woke and trying to “cancel” people the mob doesn’t agree with at that particular moment.

 

[Dezlboy]

Anyone else find the visuals (that undulating circle) annoying or vertigo inducing? Anyone sensitive to these visuals (epileptics, maybe)? I'll be blocking those that use it on a regular basis.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It'd be nice if it also auto-transcribed the recordings like voicemail on iOS.

That would be nice indeed. Having both the audible tweet and the text. Quite a few muli-language speakers find the English language slow in verbal communications. I hope they look into expanding this feature the way you've envisioned.

 

[adamjackson]

The 140 character limit was because Twitter was originally supposed to be a service accessed mostly via SMS, not an app, and SMS at the time limited messages to 140 characters.

It wasn't because 140 characters was magically the exact right number of characters.

But... yeah, 140 seconds is stupidly long. The longest to read tweet that could be posted in 140 characters in English (ignoring the possibility of just 140 W's in a row) would be probably saying the word "aioli" 23 times (that'd be 138 characters). Takes about a second per time you say it, so 23 seconds would be plenty. Bump it to 30 characters to be more generous.

===

The real reason for this change is probably so they can have audio ads. For every audio tweet you listen to, they can subject you to an audio ad in-between.

No need to educate me. I still use Twitter via SMS to follow friends. Still works! You can text Follow MacRumors to 40404 and it'll send you their tweets.

 

[movieator]

Cool!
Can’t wait to hate it.

 

[gleepskip]

Imagine Trump using this?

Imagine Biden using this?

I use a third-party app that doesn't have all the "features" that Twitter dreams up like promoted tweets and tweets from people I don't follow. I imagine voice tweets will be absent as well from the app I use. 😭

 

[Puppuccino]

What a win for accessibility. /sarcasm.

I mean, it sort of is in a way.

A lot of people who rely on accessibility may get Tweets read aloud already.

However I do also see that those that just have text alterations enabled won't appreciate this.

 

[JosephAW]

The monitors will have fun trying to understand someone with a deep accent from the south. My Russian friend once asked me what language that person was speaking, I said English, they are just southern.

 

[DotCom2]

I accidentally mentioned a specific person whom I am excited to see use this technology and my comment was, correctly, removed.

Ha ha I know exactly who you mean.
[automerge]1592484827[/automerge]

Just what we need. All those angry boomers screaming about what they're upset about today.

That'd be Facebook.

 

[scottishwildcat]

So now I have to go out of my way to listen to tweets instead of just reading them. What the heck is the point of this?

You have to? Why, who's forcing you?

 

[lazyrighteye]

And AirPod sales see sudden spike - not with the intent of listening to tweets but to avoid hearing others playing audioTweets.

 

[RD_SF]

The co-founders of Twitter started off at ODEO, which sent little audio recordings (or were they podcasts?) and had a pink-bird logo. They then pivoted to text-based tweets, mostly the same team, new name, and new blue-bird logo).