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Will Twitter's pivot to podcasts get more people to use it?
Or will the feature flop like Fleets and take the company down with it?
Twitter's strategy with adding new features has pretty much consisted of shoving stuff up the noses of users and seeing what sticks. And to Twitter's credit, it occasionally works. Spaces has been pretty successful on its own and it has stayed relevant despite a dip in popularity of Clubhouse, the app it borrowed its main concept from. The app is venturing further into the audio space by adding a new podcasts feature to Spaces. It's not a bad idea in itself — after all, making a good new thing better should be one of the company's biggest priorities right now. We're normally less than confident on Twitter's additions after flubs like NFT profile pictures and Fleets. But if executed right, Twitter just may be able to earn some new stripes and gain some real popularity — perhaps surpassing Snapchat and coming up to the likes of Facebook.
You’ll soon be able to share Google Chat Spaces with everyone in your organization
But you only get one chance
After years of creating, renaming, and killing messaging apps, Google is currently sticking with Spaces. The app is tightly integrated with Workspace software like Gmail, Chat, Drive, Calendar, and Meet, making it excellent for business collaboration. Last month, Spaces got a few updates, including a manager role to give specific users greater control over a Space, descriptions for users to create a context for their spaces, and guidelines to ensure safe and effective communication. Now, Google’s introducing the ability to share Spaces, albeit in a limited capacity.
Google+ is one of those services that saw the infamous Google graveyard three years ago. But unknown to many, only the social network aspect for general consumers was closed. Google kept an enterprise version for businesses to communicate with employees in a stream-like manner, calling it Currents. Now though, Google is shutting down Currents due to low usage and replacing it with Spaces (does anyone still have any idea which service is which at this point?).
Google Rooms is now Spaces, and it's integrated into all of your favorite apps
Live for all Workspace users starting today
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Google rebranded G Suite into Workspace last fall, bringing along new icons and some fresh features to help keep users working from home organized and in control of meetings, emails, calendars, and more. Today, Google announced some major changes for Workspace, including an individual plan for small businesses, an introduction to Spaces, and new RSVP options in Calendar — and it's making it available to everyone.
Twitter's Clubhouse competitor Spaces now widely available
You need 600 followers or more in order to host a live audio chatroom
Twitter's "please don't call it Clubhouse" feature, Spaces, started rolling out to at least some users last week. Today the company announced that anyone on Android or iOS can now host a Space ... as long as they have 600 followers or more. Which seems like a weird limitation if you want to get people excited about a new feature.
You can now host Twitter's Clubhouse-style chatrooms on the Android app
The non-beta app has added the option to host Spaces
It seems like every major tech company is in a mad dash to create a feature that's at least somewhat similar to Clubhouse. Twitter is no exception: it's been slowly integrating Spaces into the beta version of its Android app. As of yesterday, at least some users (including multiple members of the AP team) on the main app release have been able to create and host Spaces.
After nine months of existence, Google is throwing in the towel on group messaging app Spaces. It's going read-only on March 3rd and will be completely offline on April 17th. So, that's one Google messaging app down, like a dozen still to go.
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We got a sneak peek at an unreleased Google app called Spaces a few weeks back, and now Google has announced the official release of the app. Spaces is a group sharing app for Android, iOS, and the web that lets you create a new space for each topic to keep discussions focused. The app is rolling out today, so you can't download it just yet, but it won't be long now.
Aviate Launcher Goes Beta With Improved Contextual Awareness, Interface Tweaks - We Have 500 Invites
The popular invite-only contextual launcher Aviate upgraded today from Alpha to Beta. It's still invite-only, but it's definitely worth looking at, as one of the most powerful alpha products I've ever used just got even better. (Did I mention we have an invite code good for 500 invites later in the post?)