Voxer Reaches for the Android Crowd

Back in August, the folks at RebelVox launched a YouTube video depicting a “first look” at Voxer, its Walkie Talkie service, running on an Android-based smartphone. This week, it formally introduced the app in the Andoid Market. This is a big step for the company as competitors, most notably HeyTell, started offering similar, cross-platform services earlier this year.

In all cases, application discovery and installation is just the beginning. Building a contact list of family, friends, co-workers or others who would join you in a conference or asynchronous conversation is a challenge. Both HeyTell and Voxer can incorporate prospective contacts from a smartphone’s onboard contact list or from one’s list of friends on Facebook. This post by David W. Quinn claims that Hey Tell users can just download, install and begin talking (without registering) but I haven’t found that to be true.

As I wrote when RebelVox launched its service a couple of years ago, the magic here is in its medium and time agility. A user can move from IM-like chat to voice messaging to real-time push-to-talk conversations in the same “session.” It takes a little getting used to, because it is a different paradigm for using the phone, but it is ultimately gratifying.

What’s missing, for all of the “push-to-talk” services is a compelling and super simple way of onboarding new users (friends, family, co-workers) by giving them a compelling reason to load the app and begin the chat. Perhaps the cross-platform dimension of the service will do the trick.