Voxer

Voxer is an app that is a virtual walkie-talkie. It can be used on various smart phones and it's free. Voxer does not limit itself to the walkie-talkie aspect: you can also send instant text, photo, and location whereabouts to friends as easily as you can with audio. Another special function is that it enables group chats and it also enables the receiver to listen to it at their leisure. Voxer is also interactive with Facebook in that it allows the user to connect with Facebook friends and invite them to their Voxer group.

Although Voxer's basic function is to send your friends a quick voice message or text message, there is something about Voxer that sets it apart from other types of computer mediated communications like texting or Facebook chatting, and that is that you can hear your friend's voice. Yes, this can be done with a simple phone call, but this type of message is the audio version of a text. This adds a whole new dimension to computer mediated communications because most times there is little to no humanity involved in it. When hearing someone's voice it adds a sense of intimacy or of an understanding that there is in fact a person behind that phone or computer.

In the Sharer article, she talks about videoconferencing and how it enables the participants to get the aspect of body language or non-verbal clues that are missed by either a text or a phone call. This is what Voxer is lacking. While Voxer enables about 30% of effective communication (by the choice of words and style it is delivered in) it is missing the 70% that non-verbal ques gives the participants. It is said in the article that in voice-only conversations the person walks away with only about 40% of understanding, and in a method like this where the flow is inconsistent and choppy, it is probably even less than that. While Voxer is a step above texting and instant messaging, the voice only aspect in the limited version it is offered is still not as effective as video chatting can be.