X launches live video for Spaces (2024)

X has added live video to Spaces, giving users the ability to not only broadcast their voice live 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 last year, and seems to be a more Twitch-like set-up with people able to join the session.

On Wednesday, X owner Elon Musk and the official X account retweeted a video posted by DogeDesigner showing how to host a Video Space.

Tweet may have been deleted

We checked the feature on iOS and it's now available; users simply need to toggle "Enable video" option when creating a Space. And yes, the company has a sensitive media policy about what's allowed in live video on the platform (what could go wrong...).

Importantly, it's not a resurrected Periscope, the video streaming platform which Twitter shut down in 2021 due to "declining usage". As The Verge points out, some X users have already been testing the feature, and it looks very much like a Twitch stream, with the host showing up on the left side of the screen as people join the Space on the right.

Video Spaces could appeal to some users, considering the platform's algorithm has reportedly supported tweets with links to Spaces in the past. Last year, X users including Mashable's Matt Binder reported seeing tweets that included Twitter Spaces links zooming to the top of the platform's For You feed. Whether that's still the case remains to be seen with Video Spaces.

The news also comes days after X announced audio and visual calls for regular users, if you wanted that at all.