Remember Voice Tweets, the experimental feature that let some users post voice memos to your feed? Well, Twitter didn’t abandon Voice Tweets! In fact, the website is rolling out Voice Tweets for all iOS users. Twitter also plans to add transcriptions for Voice Tweets, a feature that would make audio posts more accessible… and maybe less annoying.
Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! 😜 Initial testing for Voice Tweets began in June 2020 to lukewarm reception. Most users ignored the feature, but many pointed out that Voice Tweets are inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The feature lacks any sort of captions or automatic transcriptions—something that Twitter should have anticipated, as users and disability advocates routinely ask for the platform to add automated closed captions to videos.
We’re rolling out voice Tweets to more of you on iOS so we can keep learning about how people use audio.
Since introducing the feature in June, we've taken your feedback seriously and are working to have transcription available to make voice Tweets more accessible. (1/2)
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 29, 2020
During the fallout over Voice Tweet accessibility, Twitter admitted that it doesn’t have a dedicated disability team! It now has two accessibility teams to ensure that all users can doomscroll equally and that new features are accessible from the jump.
Well, maybe not all new features. Voice Tweets, which are expanding to all iOS users, won’t have automated captions until “early 2021.” Twitter presumably plans to add voice captions to its videos at the same time.
Source: Twitter