Twitter announced on Monday that any account with 600+ followers can now host a live audio broadcast and that anyone on an iOS or Android device can listen in.

Twitter Spaces, which quietly rolled out to select users late last year, allows up to 10 speakers in a virtual chat room and allows hosts to mute and change who’s speaking as well as remove guests. Purple glowing halos indicate Twitter accounts that are hosting live Spaces events.

we created Spaces to bring people together in an intimate way to share thoughts and tweets with the power that only the human voice can bring. Spaces is now available to millions of people but the work is not finished bc it is part of a bigger vision built with you, our community

— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) May 3, 2021

Social media managers with engaged followings might want to consider hosting Spaces broadcasts now to get comfortable with the audio platform before Twitter goes ahead and launches Ticketed Spaces whereby brands, organizations and entrepreneurs will be able to sell tickets for private events at the rate of their choosing. 

“We’re working on a way for hosts to be rewarded for the experiences they create and for listeners to have exclusive access to the convos they care about most. Soon, we’ll test ticketed Spaces with a small group where hosts can set ticket prices and quantity.”

Twitter is also working on a handful of other Spaces features including co-hosting, scheduling and improved captioning. 

The moves come after the invitation-only Clubhouse app, which launched in March 2020 at the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, announced it would be teaming up with Stripe to allow chat creators to monetize their virtual conversation rooms in exchange for a payment processing fee. Twitter on the other hand is rumoured to be taking a larger cut of revenues from sales on Ticketed Spaces. 

The public nature of Twitter Spaces however means brands seeking discoverability and engagement are likely to stick with the platform, despite the higher price point. 

Start your own broadcast by hitting the “Add” button at the top of your Twitter timeline usually reserved for Fleets (Tweets that disappear after 24 hours) and scroll to the far right. Name your space and start talking!

We’d love to hear your thoughts and/or join your Spaces. Find us on Twitter @atcontentlabs.