Twitter has revealed via @Twitter Support that the company is expanding its voice tweet feature for all iOS users. For those unaware, the feature was already introduced back in June but had received backlash from users due to the lack of transcription capability. As a result of this, Twitter also mentioned that it plans to implement the transcription feature in the near future.
For a better understanding of how the voice tweet feature works, senior editor from The Verge, Tom Warren has posted a short clip on his official Twitter account to demonstrate the feature. Currently, as you may observe there aren’t any captions to transcribe the voice clip. As a result of this, it stirred dissatisfaction among Twitter users which led to heavy criticisms previously.
Twitter just launched voice tweets. Here’s some exclusive next-gen console news 👀 pic.twitter.com/BI228UaSbH
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) June 17, 2020
One such criticism came from a hearing-impaired Twitter user under the username, @LiamODellUK. In his tweet, he questioned other hearing-impaired users on if they were a little apprehensive in the lack of transcription capabilities and said he would have been more comfortable if the aforementioned feature was present as a guide for himself and other hearing-impaired users too.
Any other #deaf social media fans a little apprehensive about this? If there was a setting which saw the generated video clips appear with captions, I think I’d be a bit more comfortable. However, I do worry that if this becomes a prominent feature, #deaf users will be left out. https://t.co/WhKj723Eja
— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) June 17, 2020
Nevertheless, these issues will be soon taken care of as Twitter has seemingly confirmed that it plans to add automated captions to audio and video clip formats on its platform at the beginning of 2021. Additionally, the voice tweet and transcription feature will also be brought over to Android and web devices in the coming year as well.
(Source: The Verge, Twitter via Tom Warren / LiamODellUK / Twitter Support)
