Twitter starts rolling out voice tweets to more iOS users

Twitter is also working on transcriptions for voice tweets after the company faced criticism for lack of accessibility features on voice tweets.

Twitter voice tweets (Twitter)

Twitter started testing voice tweets earlier this June. This feature was introduced for iOS users only but it wasn't available to all. Twitter is now expanding voice tweets to more iOS users. There's still no word on when this feature will be available to Android users.

Twitter Support announced that voice tweets will be available to more iOS users “so we can keep learning about how people use audio”. iPhone users who have received voice tweets will see a new option in the tweet compose box. Users can tap on the voice tweets button, and start recording a tweet. When the voice tweet is shared it will appear with the user's profile picture and other can just hit play.

In addition to voice tweets, Twitter is also working on making transcription available for voice tweets. This update comes after Twitter faced criticism for not including accessibility features to voice tweets. It also apologised for the same.

Transcription for audio and video is part of our larger plan to make Twitter accessible for everyone across all features, both existing and new.https://t.co/c9LTPiE003 (2/2)

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 29, 2020

“We're sorry about testing voice Tweets without support for people who are visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing. It was a miss to introduce this experiment without this support. Accessibility should not be an afterthought,” Twitter said.

Twitter also announced two new teams dedicated for accessibility earlier this month. The company said testing voice tweets made them realise how they should be “more inclusive for the disabled community.” It introduced two new teams - the Accessibility Center of Excellence and the Experience Accessibility Team. While one will focus on accessibility for the company, the other will work on accessibility features and products on Twitter.