Twitter’s live audio Spaces arrive on the web

Twitter has been building out Spaces, the live audio feature it launched in December, as a means of expanding beyond tweets with an eye to monetization. With Spaces already available on iOS and Android, it was clear where the Clubhouse-style talk rooms would be headed next. Today, the feature is landing on Twitter’s desktop and mobile website. 

As for how it will work on the web, Twitter revealed that you’ll be able to preview a Space in a pop-up window before joining, where you’ll be able to see a description and some or all of the participants based on the size of the room. Upon entering a Space, you’ll also be able to continue browsing while it appears as a minimized window on the right-hand side, otherwise home to the trending and topics previews. The same pop-up will also display transcriptions for deaf and hard of hearing users — and others who may want to follow a conversation with the sound off.

Twitter recently said that it was working to make Spaces more accessible with captions and labels. The company reiterated today that accessibility and transcription were among its focus areas for the web version, along with functions like reminders and scheduling. It’s also prioritizing infrastructure and the user interface to learn how to best adapt the feature to a listener’s screen size.

The company’s rollout of Spaces has built up steam on the heels of its acqui-hire of the team behind community-oriented podcast app Breakers. Since, then it’s opened the feature up to Twitter users with 600 followers or more and divulged more about Ticketed Spaces, which allow users to charge for entry.