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Talko: Messaging App Seeks to Bring Voices Back to Phones

An app developed by Microsoft's former chief software architect sends the equivalent of text messages in the form of a spoken word.
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/ Source: The Associated Press

Longtime technology guru Ray Ozzie wants to bring back the emotions of the human voice to phones. His mission began more than two years ago as he noticed people were increasingly communicating through texts, emails and social media posts instead of calling each other. Ozzie, 58, Microsoft's former chief software architect, is a co-founder of Talko, a mobile app released Tuesday for the iPhone. Talko sends the equivalent of text messages in the form of a spoken word. Talko users can record a voice message and send it over the Internet to anyone else with the app. Recipients listen to the recording when it's convenient, rather than being interrupted by a traditional phone call. All messages will be stored for 10 days, though users can buy a subscription — expected to be $5 to $9 per month — to permanently store messages.

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— The Associated Press