Twitter's voice DMs feature is rolling out in India, Brazil, and Japan

Twitter has begun testing a new voice messaging feature for direct messages on the platform. The feature will be rolled out in a phased manner for India, Brazil, and Japan starting Wednesday, February 17. Voice direct messages expand the ability to send voice memos as direct messages or voice tweet direct messages that Twitter introduced last year. And as with voice tweets, each voice DM can be up to 140 seconds long. The trial function is available for Android and iOS users as well.

Sending a voice DM is pretty simple. You can either open an existing conversation in your DMs on Twitter or begin a new one. Touch the voice recording icon once to start recording your message and touch it a second time to finish. You can even listen to your message before sending it. IOS users also can press and hold the voice recording icon to record a message and swipe up and release the icon to share it immediately after they finish speaking.

For now sending audio direct messages on Twitter is available only for Android and iOS users. Still, users will be able to listen to the messages they receive even through a web browser. Twitter says the new feature will give users more ways to express themselves and create a more human experience for both storytellers and listeners.

Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Twitter India, said, "India is a priority market for Twitter, and that is why we're constantly testing new features and learning from people's experience on the service here. We're excited to bring the voice messages in DMs experiment to the country and give people a new way to express themselves and help them connect through the nuances, emotion, and empathy built by hearing someone's voice."

Twitter first introduced audio messaging on its platform with Voice Tweets in June of last year. Allows users to send voice memos as tweets with or without accompanying text.