Twitter will let users record and add up to 140 seconds of audio to tweets, rolling out to iOS users in the coming weeks

Twitter is where you go to talk about what's happening. Over the years, photos, videos, gifs, and extra characters have allowed you to add your own flair and personality to your conversations.

Twitter 2020-06-18

Context & Ripple Effects

Voice tweets are Twitter's answer to a gap in its format lineup: photos, videos, and gifs let users add flair to text, but until now the voice itself had no home. The rollout is iOS-first, with recording limited to Apple users at launch while the feature matures.

The company moved fast on the follow-through — within months it announced expansion to more iOS users alongside transcription plans for accessibility, and by early 2021 it was testing voice DMs of the same 140-second length in India, Brazil, and Japan, extending audio from the public timeline into private messaging.

First-order effects

iOS users gain a new posting surface — up to 140 seconds of recorded audio per tweet — while users on other platforms are limited to listening until Twitter widens the rollout.

Second-order effects

Audio proves sticky enough that Twitter extends it into DMs, testing voice messages in India, Brazil, and Japan — turning a public-timeline feature into a private-messaging one within eight months.

Third-order effects

Twitter's format strategy is additive and permanent: each media type it adds (photos, gifs, video, audio) stays and eventually converges — the 2022 global mixed-media rollout let users combine up to four videos, images, and GIFs in a single tweet, and audio slots into that same multi-format direction.

The trend: Twitter is steadily converting its text-first timeline into a multi-format canvas, with each new media type — audio included — tested on iOS, expanded, then folded into richer combined posts.

Discussion

help.twitter.com help.twitter.com on x
How to Tweet with your voice
@twitter @twitter on x
You can Tweet a Tweet. But now you can Tweet your voice! Rolling out today on iOS, you can now record and Tweet with audio. https://twitter.com/...
@ow @ow on x
congrats to twitter for creating an ‘audio feature’ that is a video with no subtitles which i'll never use because my phone is always muted
@chriswelch Chris Welch on x
Re: audio tweets and accessibility, a Twitter spokesperson said the following: “This is an early test of audio for us and we're still exploring the best ways to meet the needs of people with different abilities.” https://www.theverge.com/...
@jason_koebler Jason Koebler on x
coming soon to Twitter: voice death threats in your @ replies https://www.vice.com/...
@backlon Dieter Bohn on x
Wow Odeo is finally out of beta. https://www.theverge.com/...
@samleecole Samantha Cole on x
twitter is not thinking about, and does not give a fuck about, how it will moderate its own features. can't wait to inevitably do this work for them https://twitter.com/...
@seldo Laurie Voss on x
Oh no, oh god, oh god, oh no https://blog.twitter.com/...
@mattmcgee Matt McGee on x
Gonna give more depth to all of your “thanks for listening to my TED talk” tweets. https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon @blackamazon on x
Oh. My god. But Juneteenth right !!! https://twitter.com/...
@professorf Nick Flor-ProfessorF on x
WTF, right? But that's because you don't know that speech and voice analytics is HUGE for customer service research. This is twitter's sneaky attempt to collect voice data for big data analytics. https://www.theverge.com/...
@meredithdclark @meredithdclark on x
This, too, is valuable data. Tread carefully, y'all. Maybe read how audio data from Siri and other voice-enabled apps is stored and used. https://twitter.com/...
@fraying Derek Powazek on x
Twitter has yet to meet a garbage fire they didn't want to pour gasoline on. https://www.vice.com/...
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
It is beyond laughable that @twitter, who has just started to barely catch up with the death threats, doxxing and harassment on this platform, would suddenly introduce something that's going to bring it all back overnight without any means to moderate it. https://twitter.com/...
@mayohomo Backwoods Barbie on x
you can't reply with voice tweets .... https://twitter.com/...
@malcolmvelli Malcolm Bivens on x
Bad takes, but with audio. The streets needed this. https://twitter.com/...
@documentally Christian Payne on x
Fantastic that they are doing this during #AudioMo I still think it's about seven years too late ;-) Better late than never though. https://twitter.com/...
@bluespacecanary Concerted Activity Enthusiast on x
Hire accessibility experts and stop punting on this shit jfc https://twitter.com/...
@notpatrick Patrick Beja on x
OMG finaly!! Twitter to allow voice recordings in tweets! It is cool in itself, but as a podcaster, this is super duper interesting. https://blog.twitter.com/...
@db @db on x
“Your current profile photo will be added as a static image on your audio attachment and will not refresh if you update your profile photo.” Oh no. This is going to be a horrible user experience with your timeline flooded with user profile images. https://help.twitter.com/... htt…
@brosandprose Ella Dawson on x
“Voice tweets give a platform that has a well-documented, decade-long harassment problem an entirely new, more difficult type of media to moderate, and now gives people the chance to send, for example, voice death threats directly to a person's replies.” https://www.vice.com/...
@bacontribe Vanessa Taylor on x
i, for one, cannot wait to be called a towelhead through a voice tweet https://twitter.com/...
@nicnguyen Nicole Nguyen on x
A Twitter spox says transcripts for hard of hearing folks aren't provided for now, and the company is “exploring the best ways to meet the needs of people with different abilities”
@lilnasx Nope on x
https://twitter.com/...
@jamesliamcook James Cook on x
The Twitter app shows the audio of voice tweets on the lock screen which is very useless https://twitter.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine -SignalFire on x
It's insane that Twitter made no mention of how it will stop abuse in audio tweets, considering it can't even safeguard text. Zero foresight. https://blog.twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@epro Emil Protalinski on x
Twitter doesn't have the resources to properly moderate text. What the hell makes it think it can tackle audio tweets? https://blog.twitter.com/...
@juiceboxca Jack Appleby on x
Get ready for the mini podcast bubble. https://twitter.com/...
@kt_so_it_goes @kt_so_it_goes on x
thanks I hate it https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
OK https://twitter.com/...

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