X Adds Live Video To Spaces Instead Of Bringing Back Periscope



Spaces, the live audio feature for X, is now letting hosts turn on their video during chat sessions. The platform formerly known as Twitter announced the news on Wednesday as owner/CTO Elon Musk reposted a walkthrough from a user named “Dogedesigner”, The Verge reported.

Spaces users will notice a new option to “enable video” when they first create a new Spaces session. Hosts can opt for either their phone’s front or back-facing cameras as well as either a landscape or vertical view of their video feed.

The Video Spaces are available on the iOS version of the X app, but we haven’t seen them available on Android or the web yet. Multiple users reported significant lag while trying out the feature so far.

X bringing video to the formerly audio-only Spaces may sound like it’s bringing back Periscope, that’s technically not the case. X already has a live broadcast feature, which lets uses stream video that appears both on their profiles and the timelines of their followers. Periscope (before its untimely demise) did have a feature where hosts could invite other guests to participate in live broadcasts.

Engadget reported X’s audio chat rooms called Spaces can now broadcast live video, but only for those hosting the session. As The Verge reported, a Dogecoin designer posted an official walkthrough of the feature on the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

According to Engadget, hosts will now be able to choose whether to enable video and switch on their cameras when they create a Space. They can then broadcast on their cameras with either front or rear cameras and in vertical or landscape orientation. We’re still not seeing the option to enable video in Spaces on Android, but it’s reportedly already available for iOS devices.

Based on follow-up posts by some users, X has to fix a few bugs and other issues for the feature to work smoothly. Enabling video apparently introduces quite a lengthy lag into chat sessions, and broadcasting in landscape makes it impossible to manage a Space, since the video takes up the screen. Also, participants on desktop don’t have the ability to see videos yet. 

Mobile users that do see videos are shown an interface that prominently displays the host’s feed next to participants’ user icons. The Verge says videos only live inside the chat sessions as they happen in real time and that users will have to join them to see them, which means recorded Spaces are still audio only at the moment.

Mashable reported that that X has added live video to Spaces, giving users the ability to not only broadcast their voice but their faces, too.

The platform formerly known as Twitter has made video available for Spaces, the formerly audio-only chat room feature. It functions in addition to X’s existing live video broadcast feature launched in August of last year, and seems to be a more Twitch-like set-up with people able to join the session.

Video Spaces could appeal to some users, considering the platform’s algorithm has reportedly supported tweets with links to Spaces in the past.

Personally, I’m not interested in using X/Twitter’s Video Spaces. Right now, the feature seems kind of unfinished and somewhat unreliable (especially for those on Android.)