Twitter’s “please don’t call it Clubhouse” feature, Spaces, started rolling out to at least some users last week. Today the company announced that anyone on Android or iOS can now host a Space … as long as they have 600 followers or more. Which seems like a weird limitation if you want to get people excited about a new feature.
If you’re not popular enough to get into the Clubhouse Birdhouse Spaces hosting club, you can still listen in to anyone else’s Space, and speak up if the host deems you worthy. The host can invite other speakers or elevate a listener to a speaker, mute speakers or kick them, and pin tweets to the conversation. Interaction for listeners is limited to a handful of emoji. Presumably Twitter will open Spaces up to all users at some point.
Twitter’s done some admirable work on making an audio-only part of its service accessible, with automatic captions available for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, plus labels on all interactive elements of the feature. According to a blog post dedicated to accessibility in Spaces, improvements in caption accuracy and speed are coming, plus scrolling history, customizing vidual elements, and “explor[ing] options for increased language support.”
Spaces is live in the standard Twitter app. You need to be using the app on Android or iOS in order to host or join a Space.
