Twitter begins testing a new feature called Community Spaces
As of today, Twitter will begin testing a new feature for the bird app’s recently introduced Twitter Communities, which means that some users of the app may see additional functionality added to the service. Twitter made the announcement via a co-tweet on Wednesday that it would begin testing a new feature that it calls Community Spaces (a combination of Twitter Communities and Twitter Spaces, hence the co-tweet between the Twitter Communities and Spaces Twitter accounts).
A Space is essentially a live audio chat that is conducted on Twitter, and the experimental Community Spaces feature would make it possible for Twitter Communities to broadcast Spaces within their own communities. The beta version of the Community Spaces feature is being rolled out today, and it is anticipated that access to it will first be restricted to community moderators and administrators in the United States. The Twitter mobile applications for Android and iOS are the only ones that are being tested for this.
It is interesting to note that, according to the Twitter Help Center guidance on the subject, Twitter users who are not members of the community that is hosting the space can nonetheless attend community spaces. And according to the notification that was tweeted, non-members are permitted to join a space, but only members of the community in question are permitted to respond to the space.
It is also mentioned in the guide to the Help Center that although community members can’t host a space in their own community, they can still make a request to talk within a space if they want to. If you’re not already familiar with it, Twitter Communities is a service that enables users of Twitter to form and participate in online communities that are centered on particular passions and pastimes, such as fashion and cuisine. They function in a manner comparable to that of Facebook Groups but more closely resemble the look of Reddit’s subreddits. For the time being, the majority of what is posted in communities is tweeted, which may or may not include media such as photographs or videos.
If Twitter decides to make Community Spaces a permanent feature for its communities and the testing of Community Spaces goes well, then it seems like having the capacity to hold audio conversation events might help grow more active communities on the bird app.