Why type in 140 characters, when you talk in 140 characters. Well, not really, though I wish some people would make an effort to talk less. Sorry, what’s that I can’t hear you over my ears have reached their maximum number of words for the hour.
Rather than 140 characters though it will actually be 140 seconds as Twitter has announced that users will soon be able to send voice tweets. Rather than the customary 140 character body of text accompanied by the usual image, video or GIF, the company is now bringing voice notes to the platform in a way to provide a more “human touch”, according to the company’s post.
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. Whether it’s #storytime about your encounter with wild geese in your neighbourhood, a journalist sharing breaking news or a first-hand account from a protest, we hope voice Tweeting gives you the ability to share your perspectives quickly and easily with your voice.
Considering so many other social media platforms already offer voice notes in some form, this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise even if it does see the company break away from its usual short-form messaging. And we all know some people can have a lot to say in their 140 seconds.
What will be interested to see is how the company goes about policing these different voice notes as it is a platform that has already had to deal with a lot of instances of online abuse at other users and unless they have some way of scanning the voice notes for potential abuse (something which itself is rather difficult and invasive to do) it could simply just open up the platform for many abusers all over again. In a perfect world, they should never need to deal with this problem, but sadly, we don’t live in that world.
The ability to create voice tweets is only available to a “limited group” of iOS users currently, but the company says the feature should roll out to everyone using the Twitter for iOS app “in the coming weeks.” and Android devices later.
Last Updated: June 21, 2020
