Twitter is the go-to place when it comes to knowing what is happening all over the world, especially to know how to voice tweet. In the past few years, Twitter has added glitter here and there to keep you hooked to the platform, whether it be gifs, videos, extra character allowance, etc. All these improvements only help a person to express themselves more! But sometimes the intent of your content is lost in the 280 character limit and the tone of the limited words may change the intent that the audience perceives it.
Keeping this reason in mind, Twitter has launched its voice tweet option. They say that using your own voice for the tweets will not only give out a humane touch but also be something personalized.
Using your voice, rather than your words in a written form makes a huge difference! And it is very easily accessible to all iPhone users. Tweeting with your voice is not too different from Tweeting with text.
How to Make a Voice Tweet?
To begin, all you have to do is open the Tweet composer, tap on the icon that has bars in a wave. You’ll see that you have your profile picture with a record button at the bottom. Tap it and record away!
One voice Tweet can go up to 140 seconds each. But don’t worry, if you still wish to speak more then keep talking! As soon as you hit 140, a new tweet will start automatically, creating a thread! Once you are done with your content, tap the “Done” button to end the recorded tweet and return back to the page where you were composing your tweet.
The Recorded Voice Tweet will appear the same as a normal tweet on your follower’s timelines. If anyone wishes to listen to the voice tweet, all they have to do is tap the picture and it’ll start playing. This feature is on iOS only, playback will begin in a new window located at the bottom of your timeline and you can listen as you scroll. You can also keep hearing the tweet while doing other things on your phone or on the go.
Learning how to voice tweet is only available to a limited number of people on Twitter.
The new feature is designed to “add a more human touch” to using Twitter, the company said in a blog 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,” Twitter staffers wrote in the blog post. ” Whether it’s #storytime about your encounter with wild geese in your neighborhood. 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.”
However, some users have already shared their concerns about how the voice tweet feature could be misused. Vice’s Jason Koebler was concerned about how Twitter will analyze audio recordings. It was given that the platform is criticized as is for its inability to adequately monitor text-only posts. Women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community have detailed experiences over the years of putting up with abusive language, targeted harassment campaigns, and death threats.
How To Voice Tweet and its Effects on People
Back in the past, and by “the past” I mean June 2020, Twitter came out with a new feature that lets people record and tweet audio clips of their own voices.
For a day or two, my timeline was overwhelmed with annoying and painfully unfunny voice tweets. But then, almost as quickly as they were presented, the voice tweets stopped.
It hasn’t even been a complete two months since Twitter started rolling out voice tweets, yet everyone’s already overlooked them. Think about it. When was the last time you made a voice tweet of your own? Heck, when was the last time you even saw an audio tweet on your timeline?
These new audio tweets are dynamite! #TripleDFriday pic.twitter.com/ELUB2aNF0Y
— Guy Fieri (@GuyFieri) June 19, 2020
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) June 17, 2020
The original voice tweet hype was powerful, but it proved to be fleeting. I have yet to post a voice tweet, nevertheless, as far as I saw, none of the people I follow utilized the feature after launch week.
Remember voice tweets? That was a fun hour or two.
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) July 23, 2020
Remember voice tweets? Have not seen a single one since the day they were released.
— Ian Vanagas (@IanVanagas) July 8, 2020
lmao remember voice tweets? I don’t think I’ve seen a single one since the day they debuted.
— M.R. Bowers (@mrbowers) August 6, 2020
remember when twitter had voice tweets for like 4 hours that one time i miss it
— luke (@oneIastprayer) August 6, 2020
Why Did Voice Tweet Flop So Hard?
Some of Twitter’s features, such as the decision to mute select words or the capacity to limit who can answer back to your tweets, are actually very useful. They help users in creating a more fulfilling, personalized touch, and therefore, they sustain interest. Voice tweets, however, are just there for our entertainment.
Aside from diversity, they don’t really add much to the site. And their loss of captioning actually adds to a greater accessibility problem.
Since people need to hear to and listen to voice tweets to learn what precisely is being “tweeted”. Users who are deaf or hard of hearing (along with anyone not using sound on a device) are unable to partake in the new feature.
Though you could tweet a transcription of your voice tweet, many of the audio jokes made using the feature rely on the element of surprise that comes from listening to the audio clip.
Wrapping the Voices
It’s meriting to point out the impeccably unfortunate timing of this ~fun~ feature launch.
We’re in the midst of a global pandemic, racism and police brutality are being greatly protested around the world. And we’re months away from the U.S. presidential election. Do any of us really have time to care about voice tweets for more than a few days? Hell no.
For some people, voice tweets were a nice, shiny distraction from 2020’s soul-crushing doom vibes. But like most memes these days, their viral presence was short-lived. I, for one, am glad we’ve forgotten about voice tweets. And I hope they never make a comeback.
