Twitter looks to outdo Clubhouse with new ‘Spaces’ tests in India

Twitter Spaces is now going live for some users in India. It’s an expansion of a limited experiment that Twitter has been conducting since December.

Spaces aims to create a ‘conversational space’ that ‘focuses on the intimacy of the human voice.’ At least, that’s what the marketing materials say. In practice, it’s simply an extension to the main Twitter app that allows for group audio conferencing, with some added curation by the space’s host, so people aren’t talking over one another. Think live podcasts, but inside Twitter.

If that reminds you of another app that’s been in the news recently, you wouldn’t be wrong. The feature is likely heavily inspired by Clubhouse, the audio chat app that’s become the social media platform to be on, given the combination of its invite-only exclusivity and its star-studded lineup of users, which includes the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

“We have given a small group of diverse voices, including people in India, access to Spaces to test the feature,” the company told TechRadar this week. “By seeking feedback from a variety of communities early on, we can make the product better for everyone. The experiment will expand over time.”

One major advantage Spaces has over Clubhouse at the moment, however, is that it’s available on both Android and iOS, while the latter is currently exclusive to Apple’s ecosystem. That openness, if Twitter can make the feature available to everyone fast enough, could allow Spaces to find success despite (or alongside) Clubhouse as the audio platform for the masses.