Walkie-Talkie

By AnonyMouse, 27 February, 2012

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hello everyone! There are so many apps these days that offers a walkie-Talkie capabilities. So I am curious what everyone use the most? I have the following apps listed below in what I found. There are probably more. What are your thoughts in which is the easiest and most used if you use it at all and why? Voxer Walkie-Talkie WhatsApp Messenger HeyTell TalkVox TiKL - Touch to Talk Thanks! AnonyMouse

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By Randy on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

Hi Tom, Its Randy from accessible devices. First thanks for giving us a shout on your podcast using vokul. Myself and the accessible devices team use HeyTell. I have a friend in Spaine. We did an A B between HeyTell and Voxer. HeyTell was much more stable. I like the voice quolity better. However, I like the feature set on Voxer. Both good apps they each have their drawbacks. Have you ever tryed Tango? That's more of a real time app. If you want to give it a try just follow and DM on twitter. @thebigr That goes for you all. If you want to try these Walkie-Talkie apps.

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Randy

Hello there Big R! Thanks for that feedback. It is hard to choose between HeyTell and Voxer myself. HeyTell only big drawback I've seen is the lack of group conversation and the limited amount of time to talk. I suppose it would defeat the purpose of a windy conversation on a walkie-talkie type of apps! ;) However, I find Voxer a bit quirky at times and it appears in certain area the voice over doesn't like to play well with each other. Realisticly, you think What's Up would be top because of the multiple platform that it supports. So that is why I'm asking everyone of their thoughts! So I'm going to put you down as a HeyTell liker! :) Yes, Tango and Viber kind of fall in to a slightly different category. However, it could certainly be used almost in the same fashion. Have you tried these two apps and what is your thoughts between the two? So would you suggest using the combination of the two? HeyTell for short blurbs and the Tango for more windy conversation without using the cell minutes? We use the combination of Skype and ooVoo at work. People tend to use ooVoo more for those Video/Audio conversation. I admit I've not tried ooVoo on my iPhone and I am curious if this works better and would be an alternative to Skype since we all know is not so very friendly with Voice Over.

By Randy on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

In reply to by AnonyMouse

Hi AnonyMouse. I haven't used viber at all. Man! there sure are lots of these apps popping up. I am on why fi mostly at work and at home. When I travel I still use, you guest it. HeyTell. Tango? nice app. Love the ringer. Its Very loud and voice quolity is very good. I haven't used ooVoo either. What is your opinion on that one? To some it up, If one needs to really keep track of their minutes short talks on HeyTell and longer conversations on Voxer. I am use to talking on ham radio so its easy for me to work with HeyTell's delay. The voice quality is so darn good its hard for me to use anything else. I would really like to have a more real time app and when one comes out I will be really happy. Now the truth comes out. I one $50 to help out with HeyTell's accessibility. They were running a contest and I won for a few suggestions. I bought some coffee, got really buzzed and talked on HeyTell for a couple of hours . So you all can see I have a stake in it lol. If we hear of more WalkieTalkie apps, lets keep the information going. See you all later. Friends. From the big R. Who you all know, I really likes to talk.

By Victor Tsaran on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

In my view, Blip.me does what Voxer does but does it better and in a more accessible way. Try it out. It's really worth it!

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Have not heard of Blip.me and just installed it. Will see how this works. The only down side of Hey Tell is it limites you of your messages to retain. I didn't like that and the in-app purchase kind of turns me off! Now it is a good app when it comes to quality of the audio. Now playing with Tango I hadn't realize that it is also a video caller very much like Skype. I must admit this is certainly a replacement for Skype. Works great with Voice Over and offers the same kind of things that Skype has to offer. Plus, the number of platorms it support is huge. Nicely done. Going to play with ooVoo when I get a chance to see how this vs. Skype and Tango. Still unsure about the short Walkie-Talkie type of apps. At this point it is a hard choice among the crop between them all. What makes you like Blip.me better than say over What's Up or Hey Tell? I understand the Voxer which I still like a bit more at this time.

By Paweł Masarczyk on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

In reply to by AnonyMouse

Hello guys! I personally have tried a lot of both walkietalkie software and so called "Free calls" software. Here are my observations: Heytell: it's okay as far as the technique is concerned: i like the idea of PTT but why the messages are so short? Besides putting most of the new features as in-app purchases? Even additional notification sounds? I also have a feeling that the voice quality is slightly worse than with Voxer. Another thing is their system of identifying people and storing the data. If i have to restore and forget to do my back up i am lost. Also in order to add people i need to unreveal my private information such as phone number or email. But respect for adding multilingual support, organizing public relays and being generally cool as a team of support people. Facebook and Twitter postings are also a definite highlight. Another great thing is support for ancient Android 2.1. Voxer: it's my number one for now: real-time streaming of voice messages, decent quality, group messaging for free, supports text, location and photos, the sounds are cool, the support team is responsive, stores data on the server, lets you discover friends already on board through FB and phonebook, searching is intuitive. Unfortunately accessibility bugs aren't fixed too fast and seem to be appearing in more quantity. The FB and Twitter posting seems not to be present for now and so is with multilingual support. Another downside to Voxer is support for Android 2.2 or higher. Talkbox: I like the concept of faking a real walkie-talkie including the quality and sounds but if there are programs with a better quality i'll go for them instead. Besides that it's reat. Jumvo: excellent voice quality and that would be all: messages up to 10 seconds, accessibility problems and group chats organised as Facebook events? O.o. Blip.me: played with it for 5 minutes and threw away. Does it even support group messaging? Tikl: What? is? it? had difficulties connecting and even after i succeeded the quality wasn't satisfying. Now for the Voice calling apps: There are too many to say something about every app available. I'll be short then: Viber is great or rather used to be until they broke accessibility and apparently denied to fix it. Tango doesn't have the same voice quality - sadly :( There's a great thing i can recommend though: Bobsled, an app by T-Mobile US. Lets you call Facebook friends, leave voice mails, supports Facebook chats and free calls to the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. THe quality is great though it sometimes breaks but i believe it's due to some built in voice activation system and it's not that annoying. Accessibility is great and i can really recommend it. There's even a plugin for browsers for those without smartphones. SAdly not accessible. The only downside is that you need to be a Facebook user to take advantage of that one. If you come across something similar to Viber let me know. Also if you wanna test any of the listed apps or anything new i'm up for it. Just let me know or try to find me somewhere and i'll be there for you to test such things as those are my favorite kinds of apps. Take care Paweł ps. We still have Facetime at least those with IOS 4 gen devices so let's take advantage of it ;)

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 15:44

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Yes, I tend to find myself going back to Voxer. I can't shake it but even with a minor issues with Voice Over. I have to agree with you. There is something about it I like about it but not sure why. So we can safely say Voxer so far seems to be a safe bet to keep. I will dump the others. I'm not reallyy impress so far on any of the real time talking apps so far. Loved Skype before it really broke beyond being to use. Tango was my only choice. I have not tried Bobsled. I will give that a try. So have you ried the ooVoo? The only issue I had was creating the account which you need a sighted person to help. Once you pass that hurdle it appears tobe just fine. It touts being designed specificly for group talking. Let me know what you think of this app.

By DJHey20 on Friday, December 25, 2015 - 15:44

Hello there.
I was a HeyTell user for quite a while, and it worked well for me. But what I really didn't like about it, was that you only got 30 seconds per message, which could fill up the inbox of the person you're chatting with. So, I decided to give Zello Walkie-Talkie a try, and I like it a lot. Not only is it easy to use, but there's no limit for how long your message can be, and it's a real-time push-to-talk app. So unlike HeyTell, you don't have to keep recording message after message. You can keep talking, and when you're done, just let go of the "Hold and talk: button. Another nice thing about Zello, is you don't have to open the app to hear your message. You can have the app closed, and when someone sends you a message, VoiceOver will announce the push notification, and you'll hear the message come through. You can not only have private conversations with your friends, but you can also create public channels for people to be part of. For example, if there's a music artist you and some of your friends enjoy chatting about, you can create a channel dedicated to that artist and invite your friends to join it.
Hope this helps. :)