Over the past few months, on-demand therapy service Talkspace has added several new features, including counseling for couples and social media addiction. Today, it’s adding a feature that might be helpful for those who can’t bare to type out all the details: audio and video messaging.
With today’s update, users can have a call or video chat with their therapist for no extra cost. It’s not a live chat, however – therapists and patients can send recorded messages to each other and reply at their own convenience.
When I tried Talkspace earlier this year for its couples counseling service, I questioned the effectiveness of not being able to pick up visual cues during the reactions to things couples may say about each other. It was also apparent that texting takes a long time, and a five minute conversation easily took an hour between yourself, your partner and the therapist. Video and audio is likely to solve this, as long as the participants do not edit themselves before sending their messages.
Talkspace is available today on the Web and on iOS and Android. Service starts at $25 a week for unlimited chats.
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