Twitter is developing an updated version of its audio chat room product known as Spaces, londonbusinessblog.com learned, and Twitter confirmed. The company said it is currently working on a new experiment for the Twitter Spaces tab in its app, but declined to discuss the details of that change. However, screenshots from one of the earlier versions of this test contain what appears to be thematic audio stations, as well as a personalized audio digest.
The test shows a revamped look-and-feel for Spaces that divides the audio rooms into topics, such as music or sports, for example. These are displayed with colorful maps and images from the programs. (Oddly enough, the images appear to represent traditional podcasts in some cases.) There’s also a feature called “Your daily digest,” which contains a selection of programs that can be played with the click of a button. The tab also shows who is listening, just like now.
The company said an official announcement would be made later after the concepts are finalized, but did not offer a timeline.
Image Credits: Twitter screenshot via Watchful
Twitter also highlighted these images — which come from a competing intelligence agency watchful – are incorrect and outdated. We’re told they’re just “a first draft” of the new experience it’s in the works. (The company asked us to withhold publication for that reason, but we declined. londonbusinessblog.com often covers new products early on — and it’s interesting to see what direction Twitter can take with Spaces in the future, even if the final product looks remarkably different when launched. We think our readers would agree.)
Image Credits: Twitter screenshot via Watchful
According to our best guesses, the updated version of Spaces seems to build on Spaces’ support for Topics, launched last year. This allowed creators to tag their audio shows with up to three topics from a common list. This spring, Twitter also made it easier for users to see more about the Spaces when they tapped the Space tab by posting a space bar at the top of the screen showing who the host is, the topics and other information. Now it can experiment with using Topics to better group different Spaces.
In any case, it’s clear that the company is thinking about how to better introduce Spaces of interest to listeners — and one way to do this could be through a better organizational system and UI improvements.
These days, the Spaces tab makes discovery difficult because it offers a number of suggestions at the top, followed by Spaces of people you follow, then other live Spaces that are happening right now, and below that is a selection of trending Spaces. The shows themselves now often have long, cumbersome titles, as the creators cram searchable keywords, hashtags, and Twitter usernames into the show’s name. At any given time, the selection of popular and active Spaces is flooded with those focused on investing and crypto as web3 users are highly engaged on Twitter. This also makes discovering difficult as you have to scroll quite a bit to find the shows outside of this genre.
Plus, today’s layout only makes sense for people who are regular Spaces users. When more casual users have time to kill, they may want to locate Spaces based on what’s being discussed, rather than their connections to the hosts on the social network or what’s “hot” at the moment. Having a summary can also make the product more appealing to those who want to keep track of Spaces but don’t have the time to constantly tune.
We will update if Twitter chooses to share more about the product changes.