Talkbits, the social voice stream startup has officially released its US and UK apps for iOS and Android.
The Russian company secured $2 million from Runa Capital last year to develop its alternative messaging service and now it is bringing its apps to a wider market, to share asynchronous voice messaging in more locations.
Talkbits is a bit like open voicemail for the Internet. Users leave brief voice messages and can discover others around them or jump into various conversations. Messages are geotagged, can be personal or part of a group chat.
Social sounds are not uncommon for mobile. Audioboo, SoundCloud and Voxer all provide ways in which voice messages can be published and shared. Talkbits has a focus on the social stream and even highlights the ability to follow news, set up meetings, talk over questions and even flirt; making it sound a lot like an audio version of Twitter.
Supporting its social use, Talkbits users can sign in with Facebook, Twitter or email. The app provides channels including “Hello World” for the open stream, location-based results and topic related posts like Chinese New Year or NFL.
By creating geolocated streams, Talkbits provides a changing map of audio messages that suits the area users travel into. It’s an interesting idea when it is combined with tourism or events.This idea could easily be picked up by retailers and venues for marketing purposes.
As with most apps, the initial use cases can be suggested by a startup, but it is when user numbers hit a critical mass that a service really takes shape. Audio apps take more time to listen through than say, a short text messaging service.
Depending on the type of content users choose to post and the value others see in it, geotagging locations with voice messages could be a step toward making our digital landscape more lively for our ears.
Image Credit: Menage a Moi
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