Elon Musk continues to make controversial changes on Twitter. After blocking third-party developers from accessing the API (resulting in the demise of apps like Tweetbot and a migration of that development to Mastodon), those affected are now los ‘Spaces’ from the social network.
It has not been officially announced, but several users have detected how the subtitles option for those Spaces has disappeared. For most users, this will not be a problem, but it will be for those who need this extra accessibility option.
A must have feature for some users
Twitter Spaces (or Spaces) consist of live audio rooms with which you can listen to one or more people talk about a topic, and in which as an attendee you can ask to contribute your opinion at any time by activating the microphone. Like a conference, but each one listening and participating from the mobile.
Obviously the idea is to depend on the audio broadcast to be able to listen and participate in the debate that takes place from those Spaces, but the subtitles can be a good tool for those people who do not understand very well what someone says, or it is directly basic. so that deaf people can also participate.
Captions on @TwitterSpaces have not worked for a while and the new update for @Twitter for iOS removed the option completely. I guess this is Twitter’s way of acknowledging its broken and decided to remove the feature entirely… ????????♂️
Who knows if captions will ever return. ???? pic.twitter.com/ymyFgpd90x
— beezus (@hello_beezus) January 9, 2023
Unfortunately, it seems that the latest Twitter updates on iOS have removed this function, and although it is still active on Android, it does not seem to work as they have been able to verify. en The Verge. And of course, since Twitter doesn’t have a press department right now, there’s no one to ask about this change.
Two things could happen: it was a mistake and Twitter will bring back the subtitles in the future, or the company has decided to remove it in another effort to simplify the service and reduce costs. For now we will have to settleand people with hearing difficulties will have to look for alternatives to those Spaces.