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Take a look at your key competitors’ Twitter feeds. If you weren’t reading the Tweets with their handle attached, would you know who'd sent them?
And what about your Twitter feed? Do your Tweets read like they come from your brand? Or are they a somewhat disjointed collection of communications, reflecting the tone of various authors?
More recently, Twitter made it possible to send longer tweets, and the latest addition to the micro-blogging/social network platform is the ability to send audio tweets – or voice tweets as Twitter. Twitter has spent years trying to combat misinformation and abuse on its platform. Now it's introducing a new feature with the potential to complicate that effort: audio tweets.
Twitter is expanding its voice tweets feature to more users on iOS. Twitter was also planning on adding transcriptions to audio and video to make them more accessible, after receiving backlash for. Voice tweets can be created by opening up the tweet composer and tapping the new wavelengths icon. From there, a screen opens with a user's Twitter icon, which can be tapped to begin a recording. Each voice tweet captures up to 140 seconds of audio, Twitter said in a blog. Once the recording reaches the 140-second time limit, a new voice tweet will start automatically to create a thread.
It takes a consistent and engaging brand personality to build community engagement on Twitter. That’s why a well-defined brand voice is an important part of your marketing toolkit.
Differentiate yourself from competitors
You may not think of mattress companies as being especially differentiated when it comes to branding, but @Casper's Twitter feed is definitely not like any of its competitors. The brand combines an often sassy attitude with content that focuses on demonstrating the science of sleep.
Back in the day, and by 'the day' I mean June 2020, Twitter launched a new feature that allows people to record and tweet audio clips of their own voices.
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For a day or two, my timeline was flooded with annoying and painfully unfunny audio bits. But then, almost as quickly as they were introduced, the voice tweets stopped.
It hasn't even been a full two months since Twitter started rolling out voice tweets, yet everyone's already forgotten about them. Think about it. When was the last time you made a voice tweet of your own? Heck, when was the last time you even saw an audio tweet on your timeline?
You can Tweet a Tweet. But now you can Tweet your voice!
Rolling out today on iOS, you can now record and Tweet with audio. pic.twitter.com/jezRmh1dkD
— Twitter (@Twitter) June 17, 2020
The initial voice tweet hype was strong, but it proved to be fleeting. I have yet to post a voice tweet, however, as far as I saw, none of the people I follow utilized the feature after launch week. Anthony Scaramucci's 10-day stint in the White House was longer than our collective interest in voice tweets, which is a sure sign that the feature failed.
In June, which was apparently two months (and not 10 years) ago, you likely saw a bunch of jokes like these. Some tweets were genuinely funny. But others were barely worthy of a laptop unmute.
These new audio tweets are dynamite! #TripleDFridaypic.twitter.com/ELUB2aNF0Y
— Guy Fieri (@GuyFieri) June 19, 2020
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) June 17, 2020
leave a message at the beep! pic.twitter.com/XslX54k8pC
— dan seifert (@dcseifert) June 17, 2020
The concept was fun for a few hours, then it got mildly irritating, and eventually it was straight-up forgotten. I haven't laid eyes or ears on a new voice tweet in July or August. And I'm not the only one who's noticed their absence.
lol y’all remember twitter voice tweets? Ah good times
— magsby, savannah. (@samagsby) July 25, 2020
Remember voice tweets? That was a fun hour or two.
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) July 23, 2020
Remember voice tweets? Have not seen a single one since the day they were released.
— Ian Vanagas (@IanVanagas) July 8, 2020
remember when the whole tl was voice tweets for like 2 seconds
— jaren (@jarenclee) June 20, 2020
Wow I really forgot about those twitter voice tweets
— Sin Rostro (@audreshalynn) August 5, 2020
I forgot about voice tweets lmao they lasted for 48 hours
— Bad Mom (@PrettyDamnRude_) July 30, 2020
Voice Tweets Twitter Api
remember when everybody had voice tweets for like one day and then that feature just vanished without a trace....
— 💖stream ginny13💖 (@yyvyy_) August 8, 2020
Twitter Voice Tweets For Today
lmao remember voice tweets? I don't think I've seen a single one since the day they debuted.
— M.R. Bowers (@mrbowers) August 6, 2020
remember when voice tweets existed for like three seconds
— esha (@cutmylipwallows) August 6, 2020
remember when twitter had voice tweets for like 4 hours that one time i miss it
— luke (@oneIastprayer) August 6, 2020
Remember a few months ago people were sending voice tweets ? That was weird
— James (@james_hall94) August 5, 2020
It's worth pointing out that none of these people tweeting 'remember voice tweets?' are actually utilizing the abandoned feature. They're simply pointing out that it exists, and that it's clearly been forgotten. Why? Because voice tweets are so pointless that they're not even worth trying to bring back. Did anyone even want them in the first place?
Why did voice tweets flop so hard?
Some of Twitter's features, such as the option to mute select words or the ability to limit who can reply to your tweets, are actually helpful. They assist users in creating a more fulfilling, personalized experience, and therefore, they maintain interest. Voice tweets, however, are just there for our amusement.
Aside from variety, they don't really add much to the site. And their lack of captioning actually adds to a larger accessibility problem.
Since people need to listen to and hear voice tweets to learn what exactly is being 'tweeted,' users who are deaf or hard of hearing (along with anyone not using sound on a device) are unable to partake in the new feature. Though you could tweet a transcription of your voice tweet, many of the audio jokes made using the feature rely on the element of surprise that comes from listening to the audio clip.
The isolating aspects of the feature were addressed by Twitter Product Designer Maya Patterson, but the platform was still criticized for launching the feature before factoring in accessibility.
With the greatest of respect, Twitter, describing this version of the feature as ‘early’ to make up for the fact that it currently isn’t accessible (but may well be in a later version) isn’t good enough.
Accessibility should be considered from the start, not as an afterthought. https://t.co/qLA7Wcj3oQ
— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) June 17, 2020
It's also worth pointing out the impeccably poor timing of this ~fun~ feature launch.
We're in the middle of a global pandemic, racism and police brutality are being heavily protested around the world, and we're months away from the U.S. presidential election. Do any of us really have time to care about voice tweets for more than a few days? Hell no.
For some people, voice tweets were a nice, shiny distraction from 2020's soul-crushing doom vibes. But like most memes these days, their viral presence was short-lived. I, for one, am glad we've forgotten about voice tweets. And I hope they never make a comeback.