Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces both record your audio, but what they do with it is very different

Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces may seem like two very similar apps in the trendy audio space, but there’s one crucial difference between the two. 

It has to do with the way they’re recording your audio conversations — yes, it’s all being recorded — and what happens to that data after your live chat is over. The two companies have very different policies surrounding recording audio and data retention. 

Twitter has stated that it will store copies of all conversations on Twitter Spaces, its new live audio feature, for at least 30 days in order to check for platform violations. If a violation is detected, Twitter can then hold copies of a conversation for up to 90 days in order to provide time for a user-requested appeals process.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, Spaces are subject to the same rules as the rest of the platform. Users can report an entire Space or just specific users within the Space. Twitter will also provide a warning to users when a Space participant that they blocked is speaking.

In addition, Twitter tells Mashable that violations while using Spaces could lead to a user losing access to the feature.

Clubhouse also records its audio conversations, but the company handles things a bit differently from Twitter. Clubhouse automatically deletes its recordings when the room ends unless a user reports a violation of the apps’ Trust and Safety measures during the chat. Clubhouse will then hold onto the data until the investigation is complete.

Its stricter privacy policies may appear to make Clubhouse the more favorable option when it comes to data privacy, but it should be noted that the young company has already had its fair share of issues surrounding user data.

Clubhouse also has strict rules against participants recording any of the conversations happening in the rooms unless they get consent from all the other speakers. The platform is branding itself as a place for ephemeral conversations.

This is another area where Twitter Spaces differs considerably. According to a Twitter spokesperson, Spaces data, such as audio recordings and copies of transcriptions, will eventually be available to Spaces hosts. The company also says that participants in conversations on Spaces will have access to transcripts, but only for what they said in Spaces, not the other speakers as well. Twitter has not yet said when all of this data will be made available to users.

The two platforms’ approaches to data storage really speak to a major difference in their intended uses. It seems Twitter users will be able to Spaces for more permanent content that they can repurpose for other platforms and mediums; whereas Clubhouse rooms will live strictly in the moment.

Will these data retention policies affect whether Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces takes off? It remains to be seen. At the time of publication of this article, Clubhouse is still an invite-only, iOS exclusive platform, and Twitter Spaces has only been rolled out to a limited select number of Twitter users.