Group voice chat apps rely on human voice rather than visuals or text. Push-to-talk apps in particular function like a walkie-talkie on your phone: you simply press a button to broadcast to anyone you’ve listed.
Group voice chat apps are a third option for connecting that lies between the two categories mentioned above. Group voice chat apps rely on the strength of the human voice rather than text or graphics. Push-to-talk applications on your mobile phone work like a walkie-talkie: you simply press a button to broadcast to anyone you’ve listed. This results in far more efficient and effective communication than either video or text messaging apps or even phone calls.
Today, there are various digital means of communication. These chat apps, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, are great for sending short messages, arranging meetings, or posting viral memes. Slack, for example, allows colleagues to work together more seamlessly. Using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and GoToMeeting, employees can organize a 10 AM standup meeting or a brainstorming session with a buddy about vacation plans from anywhere in the world.
There are many good things about these messaging apps—but they also have some shortcomings. In addition to the fact that they’re difficult to use when you need to type out a long, thoughtful message, typing a lengthy message on your mobile phone will result in a sore thumb. Even on a computer, text conversations are less nuanced, as they lack tone of voice and facial expressions cues. You will also notice that video chats help solve the latter issue, but conferencing may be excessively formal, losing the richness of casual, spur-of-the-moment discussions that occur near the water cooler. You’ll have a hard time getting a word in while a group is present.
Group voice chat apps provide an alternative between those two types of apps. Group voice chat apps rely on human voice rather than visuals or text. Push-to-talk apps in particular function like a walkie-talkie on your phone: you simply press a button to broadcast to anyone you’ve listed. This makes for far more functional and efficient communication than either video or text messaging apps or even telephone calls.
What purpose do voice applications serve?
Group voice chat apps allow team members to connect without scheduling a conference call, looking up a phone number, writing out a reading, or responding to a lengthy text or email. The interface on the group voice chat apps is usually as simple as a one-push button. Group voice chat apps are used by businesses that rely on communication efficiency the most. Construction, first responders, retail, transportation, delivery, and hospitality businesses, among others, use them (even those with a more office-centric focus can benefit).
In these organizations, people on the go or in the field are connected to dispatch centers, other workers, or command centers via radios or walkie-talkies. Smartphones initially became popular, and this trend didn’t alter much, because making a phone call was too time-consuming compared to simply pushing a button and speaking into a speaker.
Businesses are taking notice of the rise of group voice chat apps, which have all of the functionality of a walkie-talkie on relatively inexpensive (from a business standpoint) cell phones that employees are already walking around with in their pockets.
This functionality can be used by businesses
Group voice chat apps can be useful for businesses that are on the front lines of communicating with customers or patients.
Voice chat apps, for instance, might be used by a retail store to alert an employee on the seventh floor that a customer on the first floor desires a specific pair of shoes from the storage room. Employees may also communicate across stores, whether they’re in the same city or halfway around the world since there are no bandwidth constraints like radio would create.
A foreman may use a group chat app to keep in touch with their team and their field office, as well as to ask for more siding to be delivered so they can finish the job. A construction worker, for instance, might use such an app to request more siding or to let their foreman know they need more siding immediately. Throughout the day, foremen use group voice chat apps to keep in touch with their team and their field office, which changes based on the availability of supplies and personnel as well as unexpected issues and delays that arise on-site.
Dispatchers can use group voice chat apps to stay in touch with their drivers, provide them with new assignments, and offer assistance in case of any issues on the road that require rerouting, without the distraction of an open radio channel. Because drivers rely on group voice chat apps to receive their following job from dispatch, dispatchers may use them to keep in touch with their workers, provide them with new assignments, and assist in problem-solving when issues arise.
Group voice chat apps are being used by hospital staff to coordinate the transfer of equipment from one section to another, to summon personnel from one patient’s room to the next, and to locate personnel urgently needed. Because they operate on cell phones already owned by health personnel, group voice chat apps are becoming popular replacements for expensive pager systems.
Search and rescue teams utilize group voice chat applications to send urgent messages across areas with low radio bandwidth to relay messages.
This functionality can be used by first responders
Have you ever seen a TV portrayal of an ambulance driver or police officer communicating via radio? You may not be aware of how sophisticated radio systems are. A single first responder may have to cross several radio dispatch networks as he moves through a big city, ignoring the cacophony of open channels full of chatter from other first responders answering calls. Those networks, furthermore, typically connect first responders with dispatch, not with supervisors or other office members with whom they might need to communicate. They are thus bulky and costly, in addition to being time-consuming.
Rural areas often lack radio towers, resulting in radio having insufficient bandwidth to cover the large areas that first responders must cover.
A group voice chat app like Talker is used by first responders in cities to centralize their communication onto a singular platform in order to avoid hopping between networks. Open radio channels are noisy and distracting, so private channels focus the conversation so that only relevant members receive voice communication. Team members who are not on the front may also be communicated with using channels.
Talker can act as a radio gateway in rural areas, functioning as a bridge between the existing radio network and Talker. Because gateway-enabled computers can be linked to Talker over the Internet, first responders can use Talker on their smartphones as an extension of their radios, allowing them to communicate over a much larger range than they would if they relied solely on radio towers. That’s why group voice chat apps have become popular among rural first responder organizations that use cell phones. Read Push to talk apps are better Zoom alternative for remote teams
What makes this different from cell phones?
Group voice chat apps are available for cell phones, but using them is quite different than making a standard call. Rather than looking up a telephone number, calling, and waiting for a ringing phone, you can simply open the app and press a button to talk. Walkie-talkies are comparable in terms of function and convenience in this regard. However, group voice chat apps are more private than walkie-talkies and other radio devices because you can create private channels and communicate with team associates who concentrate on certain job duties, rather than talking to everyone on the line.
What are voice chat apps used for personal purposes?
Even though personal video hangouts are still pretty formal, they can still be awkward. It is necessary to plan and make arrangements before calling someone (younger people know that it is a major mistake to make a Facetime call without messaging to confirm first). Even if we are using messaging applications for our own purposes, they have the same disadvantages as they do for business purposes; it is more suitable to use texting when we need to have a short conversation. Just like in business scenarios, email is often impersonal, overwhelming, excessively analytical, and easy to lose track of, rather than the casual, fast communication you desire.
Family and friends can be connected through group voice chat apps.
How are voice chat apps used?
Do you want to reminisce about old times? Make a new channel, Family Reunion, and add your most beloved family members. Then push-to-talk. Voila! Just fooling around the house? Like that, you will be reminiscing about old times.
If you want to get your uncooperative teen from the mall, use a group voice chat app to notify them you’re there without having to text or wait for the three little dots to transform into a useful message. Working together on school and extracurricular activities is also a great example of how these apps can be helpful. You will feel like a superstar as you walkie-talkie-cell phone your way to the greatest afterschool run ever.
Are you split across the country and looking to connect with your previous college buddies? Begin a channel, and you can keep chatting all evening. Voice chatting is great for multitasking, so you may finish up your laundry, dishes, and minor home repairs while catching up. It’s true! Using voice chat technology, you can keep communicating while you go about your day.
Protecting family members
Family safety groups are also great at coordinating group messaging apps. If your children have smartphones, you can set up channels where they can get in touch with you or your emergency contacts in an emergency. To get in touch with a loved one in an emergency, all you have to do is push a button. Even those who are not technologically adept can easily contact family members in an emergency.
Reduced expenditures are advantageous.
Group voice chat apps don’t require any expensive equipment, radio towers, rental fees, or maintenance and upkeep, as opposed to radio solutions. Talker provides a free version with premium choices so you can test it out for free and see for yourself how effective the human voice is. You and your family already have cell phones on which to use it.
Read more about How Talker is Solving the Biggest Concerns Facing Your Business with Communication Technology
