Gary Vaynerchuk broke my Twitter Spaces! (My first week as a beta tester)
So I've been granted the honor of being among the first few hundred people to beta test Twitter’s newest feature Twitter Spaces. I don't remember exactly how I found Twitter spaces (you have to be following someone who hosting or speaking in a room to see the feature) but I was definitely in love with the user interface and sound quality in comparison to the clubhouse app. So before I get into how Gary Vaynerchuk broke my Spaces, I'll give a run down into what I like and what I feel needs improvement before launch!
So I've been granted the honor of being among the first few hundred people to beta test Twitter’s newest feature Twitter Spaces. I don't remember exactly how I found Twitter spaces (you have to be following someone who hosting or speaking in a room to see the feature) but I was definitely in love with the user interface and sound quality in comparison to the clubhouse app. So before I get into how Gary Vaynerchuk broke my Spaces, I'll give a run down into what I like and what I feel needs improvement before launch!
At the time of this post, the Twitter Spaces beta feedback group is a very small group of people, so for you to experience the feature for yourself, you’ll need to find and follow a beta tester. (hopefully, you’re already following me.) If you’ve used the clubhouse app you be fairly familiar with the audio chat interface. Though the moderation tools are as well fleshed out yet, however, the host feels very much in control of their space. Unlike the seemingly unlimited amount of people who can jump on a mic like in the clubhouse app, you are limited to 10 additional speakers. No one is sure how many people total can populate a space but I am sure we have plenty of time to test that out.
Sidenote: much like the Clubhouse audio chat app, only iPhone users are able to utilize the feature at the moment. I am hearing the iPad is getting the ability soon.
Ok most of you are really only here because you want to know how Gary Vee broke my Twitter Space, lol.
So boom. I startup a twitter space, I think it was my second time hosting a room. After about 15 minutes of chatting with some of my followers and other beta testers, Kayvon from Twitter jumps in we start talking a little about my periscope days. (Kayvon is the founder of Periscope, which is owned by Twitter.) The thing is Kayvon is pretty popular so lots of people start jumping into the Space. The only way right now to find a Twitter Space is to follow the host, follow someone who has been given speaker privileges or get a direct link to spaces. So as Kayvon’s following starts to pile in and people start asking questions the room starts to become pretty popular turning my little “dinner party” into a town hall meeting. Things are going great people are spending limited time "on stage" and asking some great questions But little did we know Gary Vaynerchuk found the space! So Gary decides to screenshot the Space and shoot it out to his timeline and all hell breaks loose. lmfaooooo. My Space quickly goes from 3-4 people requesting to speak to Kayvon to about 40 all at the same time. At this point, this system is getting pushed to its limits because listeners are spamming the request button to get my attention, and some people who were granted speak privileges are getting kicked. Plus the UI isn’t designed to efficiently sort through 40 requests at the same time. So as I’m vetting each profile while simultaneously moderating and greeting each person who joins the convo, the tweet from Gary Vee is shared inside the space and we all realized what going on. so for about 15 minutes tech enthusiasts, Journalists, etc.. are flying into the space until Kayvon leaves, and then the room goes back to normal, or at least I thought. Turns out for the next 4 days the Twitter team was trying to figure out why 2 out of every 3 listeners would get kicked from the room when I brought them up to speak. Which I called the “Issa Khari bug” since my space was the only account that this was happening in. I haven’t seen Gary jump in since but he did jump in fellow beta tester Kyle Harris’ space later on that day and came up to speak on the “hustle” culture which was interesting, to say the least. lol
I think the best thing about the whole situation is that a lot of feedback was submitted from the experience and created the opportunity to see what would be needed for larger accounts to utilize the feature. My Fellow beta testers as well as myself have made several suggestions like co-hosting and some better moderation abilities, like muting individual speakers as well as the whole room. I do want to say the Twitter team has been incredible with reaching out, they are regularly in the rooms and even come up to speak from time to time to listen to feedback in real-time. It reminds me of my Periscope VIP experience, with a great line of communication and genuinely listening to those who cultivate communities to be a significant voice in how these apps are shaped. I’ll give an update down the line as the app gets some new features which I'm hearing should be rolling out soon. So that’s about it for now, let me go start up another space, go find me on Twitter!