Social media platform, Twitter has expanded its voice tweet feature which allows iPhone users to record an audio clip with a tweet, to more users. For now, the audio snippet does not display what is recorded, but the app plans to include audio and video transcriptions to improve accessibility. Android and web-based users will not be able to tweet audio clips until 2021, the app announced on Tuesday, 29 September. The feature was tested and brought to “a limited group of people” in June but was criticised for not being accessed especially to people with disabilities. Tweeps on iOS will now see a new waveform icon beside the camera option in the tweeting box. They can tap that and a red record button appears at the bottom of the screen, which you then tap to start recording. Once the tweet is shared, it will appear with the user’s profile photo. Here, you should note that your profile picture when you record the tweet will always be attached to that audio tweet and will not refresh even if you update your profile photo. Users can continue to listen to voice tweets while scrolling through the timeline or upon switching to another app. Audio can only be added to original tweets, so you can’t include them in replies or retweets with a comment. While text tweets allow no more than 280 characters, each voice tweet captures up to 140 seconds of audio. If you keep talking past the time limit for a tweet, a new voice tweet starts automatically to create a thread. In a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter said it has dedicated two special teams to accessibility, focusing on the company’s products and business. “Transcription for audio and video is part of our larger plan to make Twitter accessible for everyone across all features, both existing and new,” the company said in a tweet. Automated captions to audio and video on the microblogging app are expected by early 2021. Twitter did not disclose when transcription for audio tweets will be available. Twitter also plans to test voice DMs “soon”.
