Twitter updated its app to make its audio chat room feature, Twitter Spaces, a central part of the user experience. Today, the company will begin to roll out to select users a dedicated tab for Twitter Spaces in the main navigation bar of its mobile app, initially on iOS. The feature will see Twitter Spaces gain the middle spot in this bar, between the Search magnifying glass icon and the bell icon for Notifications. As Spaces is not replacing any other tab, the navigation bar must now accommodate five icons instead of only four.
Not everyone will see the update immediately. Instead, only around 500 people from the original Spaces beta test will first see the new Spaces discovery tab, as it’s called when it rolls out today. Twitter says the bill will showcase the Spaces being hosted by people you follow, but these won’t appear as they do on the Fleet line today at the top of the Timeline. Instead, the discovery tab will present Spaces more visually, similar to the promotion cards that appear when you tweet about upcoming Spaces.
The company told TechCrunch that, even though Spaces can be fun, it understands the live events have been hard to find and keep track of, given there’s been no dedicated place where Spaces can be discovered. The new tab aims to change that. Users will see active Spaces within the account with more details, including Space names, hosts, and people you know who are participating. The bill will also allow users to manage reminders for scheduled Spaces so you’ll be notified when they’re about to begin and give Twitter feedback about which Spaces you’d like to see more of.
App researcher Jane Manchun Wong uncovered Twitter’s plans to revamp its app to include Spaces on the navbar last month. Currently, only Twitter users with at least 600 followers have been granted the ability to host Spaces, and Twitter told us that the figure has not changed with the launch of the tab. However, the company still has grand plans for the Spaces product, including scheduled Spaces that are now becoming easier to find with this discovery feature and things like ticketed events, co-hosted events, accessibility improvements, and more.
Putting Spaces directly in the navigation bar represents a big push for Twitter’s audio chat rooms, which have otherwise been relatively easy to ignore by those who aren’t interested in Twitter’s Clubhouse competitor. It also arrives when Clubhouse is expanding access to its social audio app. After its Android debut, Clubhouse said 2 million Android users have joined its platform. Twitter, meanwhile, hasn’t yet publicized how many users have tested out Spaces at this point, either as a host or an end-user.
Alongside today’s launch, Twitter will begin to roll out another Spaces feature previously tested: displaying the purple ring around someone’s profile pictures from the Home Timeline. Currently, profile pics can be highlighted with a blue circle that takes you to the user’s Fleets when tapped, but the new purple ring will indicate they’re actively using Spaces at that time. You can then tap their profile pic to join them. The feature makes it easier to find Spaces while scrolling your Twitter Timeline as usual. Twitter says that after the new Spaces tab is tried out with the original beta test group, it will begin rolling out to more people.
