Messaging between phones is getting smarter—and cheaper—with the new wave of social messaging apps. We asked one of our technical friends, Jim Phillips, to give us a quick tour of the leaders. Here is his review.
Beluga, available for iPhone and Android phones, made headlines recently because it was bought by Facebook. With Beluga, you can create “Pods” or social groups like “work”, “family” or “school”. You invite members to the pod, inviting anyone in your contact list. They don't have to have Beluga installed. Once the pod is created, you can send voice messages out to the entire pod and they can reply back to the pod. Want to organize a birthday dinner for your friend, Rosie? Set up a pod for that purpose. (You can also message individuals separately.)
GroupMe, available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android phones, is similar to Beluga. However, there are a few key differences. Once you define a group, you can assign a number to it. Dial that number and you have a group conference call. Share your location with the group and you can see each individual’s location on the same map! You can also share photos with any group you have set up. This takes a huge amount of lag out of social organizing. “Let's meet here. Look at what's going on!” And you're off!
HeyTell, available for iPhone and Android, is more or less the push-to-talk feature that you used to get on Nextel phones in the 90's. It doesn't come with a lot of bells and whistles, and there are plenty of other apps covering the same ground TiKL available for Android only, allows for group chat as well as individual one-on-one chats. It also does text messaging.
At VoiceQuilt, we focus on helping families collect voice-based toasts, tributes and favorite memories. However, we're fascinated by the way these new voice messaging applications speed up group communication. They appear to make spur-of-the-moment conversations, meet-ups and parties EASY. Check them out and let us know what you think!
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