Vtalkie Is A Push-To-Capture Video Messaging App For iPhone
Almost every messenger available on iOS lets users share media files. You can send photos, documents, videos and even doodles to your friends via messenger apps from your iPhone. Vtalkie might appear to be just another messenger for iOS, but actually there is something really unique about it. The app lets you share videos with your friends, but it treats this transfer as a walkie talkie exchange. Instead of recorded voice messages, you get to record short video clips that are then sent to your friends straight away. Apart from this primary feature, the app can also be used to discover people near your current location, and comes with a nice collection of animated emoticons.
To get started, you have to sign up for a new Vtalkie account from the app’s welcome page. Registration can be done via email, or by using your Facebook account. Once you have logged in, you can search for other people using the app in your vicinity by going to the ‘Nearby’ section, or invite your friends them to connect via email, SMS or Twitter. While we totally get that Vtalkie is supposed to be like a walkie talkie for videos, the Nearby section can still prove to be a bit of a privacy headache. Of course, other users can’t see your profile until you choose to connect with them, but you can still get messages from them, and there is no way of turning this feature off. Thankfully though, the Nearby list is nothing more than a secondary feature of the app, and you can connect with your friends regardless of their distance from you.
Once you begin a chat session with a Vtalkie user, you can send them simple text messages, static emoticons and animated Emoji. The animated smileys are pretty great, and unlike most you might have seen in other messenger apps.
To share a short video clip, press the camera button located to the left of the text box. Vtalkie supports both front and rear cams, letting you switch between them before you begin recording a clip. The camera switcher is located in the bottom-right corner. Video clips continue being shot in Vtalkie for only as long as you are holding the ‘Push to capture’ bar at the bottom of the screen. As soon you let it go, the clip is automatically transferred to the person you are chatting with.
Vtalkie will get even better if its developer decides to make it cross-platform with an Android release, and adds the option to turn off location-based discovery. For now, the app is fun to use, and with its price tag of free, you don’t have to pay a dime to give it a try. Head to the following link to grab this iPhone/iPod touch-optimized app.
