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Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it has rolled out Spaces, its Clubhouse-equivalent audio chat feature, to Android devices.
The app is in beta testing for select Android users, the company said in a tweet. Users can only join and talk in the chat rooms for now, but will soon be able to create their own.
The social network announced a private beta testing of Spaces in iOS devices in December last year, aiming to compete with Clubhouse, an invite-only audio chat app available exclusively to iPhone users. Twitter’s move to extend the feature to Android users could help give it a lead over Clubhouse app, which is currently available only in iOS.
Clubhouse exceeded 8 million downloads worldwide in February since its launch in April last year, according to app analytics firm App Annie. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s presence on the app has helped it exceed 2.6 million downloads in the U.S. alone. Last month, The New York Times reported that Facebook is looking to build a product similar to Clubhouse.
Twitter’s Spaces are public content - meaning that they will appear in followers’ fleets and will also have a shareable public link. The chatroom creator will have control to who can speak and send them DM invites.
Last month, the micro-blogging platform introduced voice DMs feature to its app, allowing users to send voice messages in direct messages. CEO Jack Dorsey also said Twitter intends to make its content moderation practices more transparent, giving people more control to moderate their interactions.