App showdown: Best apps for sending voice snippets
SOMETIMES, A SITUATION CALLS FOR MORE THAN JUST THE DIGITAL WRITTEN WORD, BUT NOT QUITE AS MUCH AS A FULL-BLOWN TELEPHONE CONVERSATION.
SMARTPHONES ARE MORE and more being used for things other than being a mobile phone, and while voice messaging uses parts of traditional texting and calling, it’s a somewhat novel pastiche of the two that might just be the thing you need to get back to using your phone for communication.
The long and short of the voice message is: texting can take too long, it requires both your eyes to be looking at the screen, you probably need more than just a single thumb to type, you often make mistakes, people can interpret your words the wrong way and autocorrect often rears its ugly head, with embarrassing consequences. Meanwhile, phone calls can be awkward, you’re forced into responding immediately (or ignoring and copping the fallout later), there’s no time to collect your thoughts and they often go on for too long.
Voice messaging, on the other hand, takes the best bits from both worlds. This form of communication requires just your thumb to hit record (like a phone call) and the recipient can listen to your message whenever it’s convenient for them (like a text). As with any new frontier, there’ll be some apps that do it better than others, so this month’s App Showdown has put its ear to the floor for the best voice messaging apps around. If you’re in the market for a voice messaging app (perhaps because your fingertips are bruised from all your texting), then you will most likely find what you’re looking for with Voxer. With the option to listen to recorded or as-it-happens (walkie-talkie like) live messages, you can be either immediately on the ball and responding or leisurely conversing at your own pace. Since an app like this might not be able to stand up for very long with just one form of communication to offer, Voxer also allows you to text your contacts (like some sort of pleb), send photos from your camera roll, share videos, GIFs and also let them know where you are by sharing your location. Consequently, they also tout that all private messages are protected by end-to-end encryption and data is stored securely in the cloud. You can happily use a headset with this app, too, giving you the ability to send crisp audio and listen to your responses in private.
Voxer isn’t just for one-on-one conversations amongst friends, however. The app can handle chat rooms of vast numbers of people — anything from a soccer team all the way up to a 500-strong business. There’s a web tool, too, so you don’t always have to keep your hand on your phone.
There’s the option to upgrade to the Pro and Business versions of Voxer, which add on further features that could be truly useful. A subscription to either opens up unlimited message storage on your account, as well as the ability to recall your message if you suddenly realise what you’ve said was inappropriate or just plain embarrassing. Also exclusive to the Pro and Business tiers is voice-to-text transcribing, which gives you the opportunity to use this service in silence. Another great feature is the Walkie Talkie Mode, which enables you to use your phone like a two-way radio without having the app open at the time. A Pro subscription will set you back $4.49 per month, with the Business sub (which adds administrative powers) coming in at about twice that price.
YOU CAN BE EITHER IMMEDIATELY ON THE BALL AND RESPONDING OR LEISURELY CONVERSING AT YOUR OWN PACE