After rolling out audio tweets for iOS in June, Twitter is now experimenting with allowing users to record and send voice messages via direct messages. Alex Ackerman-Greenberg, Product Manager for Direct Messages on Twitter, let me know that the company will soon be evaluating voice DMs. Brazil will be the first nation to be included in the evaluation. He was sharing the news ... A 20-second voice call. We know that people want more choices on how they express themselves in discussions on Twitter — both publicly and privately, he said.

Similar to voice tweets, voice messages have bare-bones, basic interface: there's only a play / break button, and the sender's avatar pulses while the message plays. The product team developed a in-line recording experience to make it easier to send these messages as part of a natural conversation flow, so that's only one change from the current audio tweet gui. There is a report alert option in the event that anyone misuses voice DMs, which is often a legitimate concern for private audio.

Twitter faced substantial backlash after announcing audio tweets when it became apparent that the company had not been able to factor in accessibility. In a recent interview with Protocol, Dantley Davis, Design Leader, said we shipped something that shouldn't have been shipped without this discussion going on.