Audio tweets were rolled out by Twitter for iOS in June and now they are experimenting with the idea to let people record and send voice messages directly. The product manager for direct messages at Twitter, Alex Ackerman-Greenberg stated that Twitter would test voice DMs soon. The first country to test the feature will be Brazil.
The news was shared by a 20-seconds voice message and said that they know the requirements of people to express themselves in conversations publicly and privately on Twitter. Voice messages have a simple interface like voice tweets. There is a play or pause button and the sender’s avatar pulsates when the message is played.
An in-line recording experience has been designed by the product team to make sending messages more easier which is a major difference from the current audio tweets interface. A “report message” option is available if someone misuses voice DMs.
On the other hand, Twitter has been heavily criticized after the announcement of audio tweets and this also proved that they had failed to factor in accessibility. Design chief Dantley Davis said in an interview with Protocol that they shipped something that they shouldn’t have without the conversation happening.
He also said that they have a full-time accessibility team within product development which also includes design and engineering. They have changed their product development process so that accessibility is prioritized during the conceptualization of features. The new development flow works as Twitter continues to develop the voice messaging. Facebook and Instagram have already allowed audio recordings in DMs.