Twitter Might be Rolling out Audio DMs after Testing the Feature in Brazil

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Twitter is experimenting with a new feature that will allow users to send audio DMs to each other. This is coming just months after the audio tweet feature was rolled out to iOS users for testing.

According to Alex Ackerman-Greenberg, product manager for direct messages at Twitter, users will be able to record and send voice messages to other people’s DMs. In a statement to The Verge, Ackerman-Greenberg clarified that the company will be testing the audio DM feature soon, but it will be in stages.

“We know people want more options for how they express themselves in conversations on Twitter — both publicly and privately,” he said.

The audio DM has a simple interface with just the sender’s avatar and a play/pause button. When the audio message is playing, the sender’s avatar pulsates just like it does in the audio tweets. According to Ackerman-Greenberg, the messages can be recorded while a conversation is going on. He said the in-line recording experience makes it easier to send the messages as part of the natural conversation flow.

Twitter Might be Rolling out Audio DMs after Testing the Feature in Brazil

In addition to the button and avatar, there is a “report message” option that can be used to report the sender if the audio DM that was sent is inappropriate.

Nigerian social media influencer, Iseunifeoluwa Ajayi thinks the audio DMs will make chats better on Twitter. “A lot of people have reached out to me on Twitter asking me for the right way to pronounce my name, being able to send audio DMs will make it easier to communicate things like this,” he said.

Considering that there are times when you have a lot more things to say than you have the energy to type, Iseunife is positive that when the feature comes out, it will greatly enhance the conversation flow on Twitter.

The audio tweet feature was released to iOS users in June but has died down after a while probably because users are more comfortable banting with typed words. Reading typed tweets makes it faster to scroll through messages as against staying on an audio tweet.

“People have gotten tired of using audio tweets,” Iseunife added, “but this will be in the dm, so it will be a lot more relevant than the audio tweet feature that was released earlier.”

Brazil will be the first country where users will be able to test the feature. Other countries will follow afterwards.


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