Twitter appears to have removed its integration of captions from Spaces on iOS. To make matters worse, this accessibility-focused feature seemingly doesn’t work on the web version and Android.
The apparent removal of Space’s captions on iOS was first reported on by The Verge. Spaces, which is Twitter’s social audio component, provided captions as an accessibility feature. However, for one reason or another, the feature has ceased to work if you are listening in on iOS. Within the iOS app, the three-dot menu that previously activated captions has disappeared.
On top of that, when attempting to access captions on the web version, captions simply won’t show on the screen. Even when clicking the on-screen “CC” prompts, nothing changes for the user. On Android, the option to turn on captions but whether or not it actively works is inconsistent.
What makes matters even more strange is that Twitter still advertises the use of captions on the company’s landing page for Spaces. “At any point, while hosting, listening, or speaking inside of a Space, you can tap the “Turn on captions” button,” the page reads. If disabling captions on iOS was intentional, Twitter has yet to update the page.
As The Verge points out, reports of the removal of captions on iOS date back all the way to the beginning of January. For one reason or another, it took a bit of time for more to take notice. It appears as though version 9.4 of the Twitter app was when the caption function was removed.
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
Understandably, this deals a significant blow to Twitter’s accessibility feature set. Spaces places audio at its forefront. Without captions being available, there’s a segment of users who will be unable to use Spaces to its fullest.
There’s speculation driven by the idea that Twitter may have removed this feature as a means to cut costs in the current Musk era. However, given that Twitter has not spoken about the matter, there’s no confirmation on whether captions are gone for good or may return on iOS.
