Twitter on Wednesday announced it is testing voice messages in direct messages (DMs) up to 140-seconds long in India.
The experiment will be rolled out in phases to the audiences, making India one of three countries to have access to the feature, alongside Brazil and Japan.
According to the company, voice messages in DMs will make it easier for people to have conversations.
“We’re excited to bring the voice messages in DMs experiment to the country and give people a new way to express themselves and help them connect through the nuances, emotion, and empathy built by hearing someone’s voice,” said Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Twitter India.
Each voice message can be upto 140 seconds long and can help people chat quickly – whether on the move or when there’s just too much to type.
“We are dedicated to giving people more options to express themselves in conversations on Twitter – both publicly and privately,” said Alex Ackerman-Greenberg, Product Manager for direct messages at Twitter.
This is how the new feature will work.
In a DM conversation, tap the new voice recording icon once to begin recording.
Tap the stop icon when you’re done and you’ll have the option to listen to your recording before sending or deleting it.
Alternatively, on iOS, you can also quick-send by holding down the voice recording icon and swiping up to send immediately after you’re done talking.
Anyone will have the ability to listen to these messages wherever and however they use Twitter, but the ability to record voice messages over DM will be available for people on Twitter for iOS and Android in India, Japan, and Brazil.
People will see your voice Tweet appear on their timeline alongside other Tweets. To listen, tap the image.
“We hope to let people record and send voice messages as DMs will enhance their conversational experience by adding convenience and expression,” said Ackerman-Greenberg.
