To Ray Ozzie, former chief software architect for Microsoft and Lotus Notes developer, the advent of the smartphone brought a lot of benefits but it also meant people were talking less. Given it's a communication tool, that's ironic, right? Ozzie sets out to change this and bring back power to voice with an app called Talko.
At the heart of it, Talko is a Voice Over IP app that facilitates one-on-one conversations and collaborations with groups. While it will be most useful for companies, Talko doesn't discriminate, creating a means just as effective for personal communication.
To use Talko, users have to sign up first for an account by either providing an email address or a mobile number or using a Facebok account. Three permissions will be requested by the app after signing up: to turn on notifications, to link to your contacts, and to allow motion activity.
To create connections between individuals or groups, Talko uses a series of back-end cloud services accessed over cell or Wi-Fi networks. If both are available, the app assesses which one is better at the moment and uses that to ensure optimal call quality.
One of the niftiest features of Talko is the ability to offer both real-time and asynchronous communications. This means users don't have to wait for the other party to be online as well, letting conversations flow only according to everyone's convenience.
Calls can also be recorded, amended with photos, and tagged to enrich the conversation. After a call, parts of the conversation can also be searched to find important elements, thanks to Talko creating a log.
Talko is free to download and use but it will be establishing a 10-day rolling window for calls. This means after 10 days, all records of the call will be deleted. That is unless a user opts to retain particular conversations, which can be done for a certain fee. No word yet on how much Talko will be charging for archived calls, but Ozzie says he expects it to cost around $9 a month for every user.
For those worried about privacy, Talko offers the added benefit for any or all parts of a conversation. No need to wait for the app's 10-day limit until all traces of a conversation is erased.
Talko for iOS was released on Sept. 23. Android and Web versions of the app are in development. Talko was founded by Ozzie with Eric Patey and Matt Pope.
