Twitter Expands Rollout of Voice Tweets Feature for iOS Users

Twitter says it's making its voice tweets feature available to more users on iOS. Launched in June for a limited number of users, voice tweets is designed to allow people to tweet with their voice, sending voice-based messages instead of text.

voicetweets2
Voice tweets can be created by opening up the tweet composer and tapping the new wavelengths icon. A screen then opens with a user's Twitter icon, which can be tapped to begin a recording.

Twitter users can capture up to 140 seconds of audio, but continuous recording is possible and longer audio will create multiple voice tweets.

Listening to a voice tweet can be done by tapping on the image in the Twitter timeline. On iOS, playback starts in an audio player that's docked at the bottom of the timeline so users can continue to scroll through Twitter.


Since their arrival on iOS, voice tweets have been criticized for lacking accessibility in the form of audio transcriptions. That criticism led Twitter employees to reveal they'd been asked to volunteer their time on top of their usual work to focus on accessibility.

The ensuing flak led Twitter to tell The Verge that it was exploring how to build a "more dedicated group" to focus on accessibility, and the company has since announced new two teams in that vein. Twitter subsequently said it plans to add automated captions to audio and video on the platform by "early 2021."

Popular Stories

Chase Sapphire Reserve Apple Perk Feature

Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Introduces New Perk for Apple Customers

Wednesday June 25, 2025 2:08 pm PDT by
Chase this week announced a series of new perks for its premium Sapphire Reserve credit card, and one of them is for a pair of Apple services. Specifically, the credit card now offers complimentary annual subscriptions to Apple TV+ and Apple Music, a value of up to $250 per year. If you are already paying for Apple TV+ and/or Apple Music directly through Apple, those subscriptions will...
maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
foldable iphone mockup

Foldable iPhone Leak Reveals New Camera Details

Thursday June 26, 2025 3:01 am PDT by
A new rumor today surfaced about Apple's book-style foldable iPhone, set to be released next year, and this time it's about the cameras. Mockup of foldable iPhone in its unfolded state (Image: Digital Chat Station) In a previous report, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects the foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold" for short) to include a dual-lens rear camera, but Kuo provided no other...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in a Few Months With These 12 New Features

Thursday June 26, 2025 2:00 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:40 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
anker power bank recall

PSA: Anker Recalls Multiple Power Banks Due to Fire Risk

Friday June 27, 2025 4:16 pm PDT by
Popular accessory maker Anker this month launched two separate recalls for its power banks, some of which may be a fire risk. The first recall affects Anker PowerCore 10000 Power Banks sold between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2022 in the United States. Anker says that these power banks have a "potential issue" with the battery inside, which can lead to overheating, melting of plastic...
iPhone 17 Air Size Feature

iPhone 17 Air Screen Protector Reveals a Potential Design Difference

Thursday June 26, 2025 11:05 am PDT by
A screen protector that is allegedly designed for Apple's rumored ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air model has revealed a potential design difference. Based on an image shared today by a leaker known as Majin Bu, the iPhone 17 Air's front camera may be positioned to the left of the Dynamic Island, rather than to the right of it like on iPhone models released over the past few years. It is unclear...
iPhone Car Key WWDC 2025

Apple Announces 13 Automakers Planning to Offer iPhone Car Keys

Friday June 27, 2025 11:42 am PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. During its WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple said that 13...

Top Rated Comments

shapesinaframe Avatar
62 months ago
A multi billion dollar company wants employees to volunteer their time?

I guess you don’t become a multi billion dollar company by doing stupid things like paying people.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DrumApple Avatar
62 months ago
People will abuse the S out of this. Sex noise, racist tirades, vulgarities... how do they intend to moderate it? They can't even moderate text well.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Le Big Mac Avatar
62 months ago
Why do I want this? To the extent Twitter is great, it's the ability to scroll quickly through lots of short snippets and see what might be worth clicking through. I can't do that with audio, where I have to pause and listen to someone. No quick glance, no skimming.

And FWIW, that sample image looks like total clickbait. All it needs is a photo of an attractive woman with some skimpy article of clothing to make it complete.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
62 months ago
The Heck. Why not do that during working hours? It’s for work no?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
62 months ago

Are they purposefully trying to instigate people to create radio ad-type content? ... So, to get back to the subject, leave the radio-type rambling for audio podcasts.
As well, if there’s content that they, as a private company, want to censor (hate speech or Russian bot farms or some such), they’ve just built themselves a system where it’s much harder to detect that - algorithms can scan millions of words of text messages a second. They won’t do nearly as well trying to do that with audio.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
davidjschloss Avatar
62 months ago

The Heck. Why not do that during working hours? It’s for work no?
If you read the thread linked in the article, it says that it is during normal working hours, however it's not budgeted into their time. In other words, They've got 8 hour days, and not exactly 8 hours of work, so they do this work during those work hours.

But to be clear, there's no formal accessibility team at Twitter—that's one of the things these people are volunteering. And there's no compensation to the team for adding this work to their original work.

They are not, however, being asked to volunteer, or being asked to stay "after work" to do this. They're just cramming it into their normal 8 hours with the sort of nod nod wink wink of their supervisors.

The bigger story here is that Twitter has no accessibility team.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)