Twitter Inc. announced today that Spaces is ready to go, mounting a challenge to a slew of similar apps such as Clubhouse that have taken off recently.

The audio-based conversation feature can be used by both iOS and Android users not as a standalone app but built into the Twitter platform. The company has been testing Spaces for a while now, with today being the first day it’s available to anyone with at least 600 followers.

In a blog post, Twitter explained why it chose that number, saying that such accounts will probably “have a good experience hosting live conversations because of their existing audience.” The company added, “Before bringing the ability to create a Space to everyone, we’re focused on learning more, making it easier to discover Spaces, and helping people enjoy them with a great audience.”

When a person starts using Spaces, followers will see a purple bubble at the top of the person’s timeline while the conversation is still live. Once joined, the user can listen in, react with various emojis, create captions, look at pinned tweets, tweet, direct-message the Space or request to speak.

Those hosting Spaces have full control over what goes down in the conversation. They can mute people if they so choose or remove them from the Space entirely. They can also tell people to stay on topic or they can introduce new topics. If they feel someone they know should join the chat, they can DM them and ask them to come on board.

“Anyone can report and block others in the Space, or report the Space,” said Twitter. ”Also, people you’ve blocked can’t join a Space you’re hosting, and you’ll see labels and warnings if someone you’ve blocked is speaking in a Space you join.”

The company has taken things a bit further than Clubhouse, in that it will give users a way to make money from their Space. In the future, hosts will be able to sell tickets to their conversations, setting the price of the ticket themselves and choosing how many tickets they want to sell. Called “Ticketed Spaces,” the feature will be available in the coming months but only to a limited group of people.

Even if users aren’t selling ticketed events, they can announce when they’re going to host a Space and their followers will receive notifications giving them the time and date.

Photo: Twitter