I understand that it's often easier to express something with a quick voice message, rather than writing it up. But is it searchable? Is it coherent information that I can refer to, copy and paste? Is it efficiently consumable?
No. More often than not it is a meandering, unreflected ramble with low information density.
You also can't fix mistakes or reword something in a voice messages without re recording the whole thing, so you just leave it as is. Or record an addendum.
Voice messages are more convenient for the producer, but are always more work for the consumer.
Automatic transcripts help a bit, sure. But they only go so far. Both because of accuracy and because of different structure to the content.
I can see niches where this is useful, but I very much do not want to be bombarded with voice messages in a professional context.
> Voice messages are easier for the producer, but are always more work for the consumer.
This is so true especially for long voice messages. I really don't like listening to people thinking aloud about what they want to tell me. I mean...this isn't a suprised-by-voicemail moment, they intentionally decided they wanted to send this voice message in the first place.
But it gets even worse if you (like me) don't like sending voice messages. Maybe it's just me, but to reply to a lengthy voice message via text I have to listen to it in parts multiple times to adress every question/topic which was raised in it.
I'm totally fine with people calling me, if they prefer voice. But please don't send me voice messages as long you're not in a car or otherwise unable to text and have a real important message.
> I very much do not want to be bombarded with voice messages in a professional context.
I had one client who started sending me voice messages and it drove me nuts. I realised that most people tend to forget what they said in a voice message faster then via other means.
Actually EVERYTHING that is easier for the producer is harder for the consumer, and basically given that an average produced item would have a nontrivial number of consumers, every corner you cut has a massive cost for everyone else.
There should be a technology that can automate all the kinds of things a producer can do to make it easier for consumers to search, discover, remix and collaborate with git and so on.
There's also some practical concerns. You can't check voice messages while you're in a call. You can't check them in an office setting without having to look for a headset. You can't see them on a smartwatch etc. And it takes a lot more time to consume the content. I can read in 5 seconds what it takes 60 seconds to speak :)
We built a similar app for asynch 1-1 & group voice chat (back in 2010 or so, it was called Voicee).
Found exactly the same thing (even when we/founders were developing it and knew how to use it). It's so much easier to keep blabbing and that will put the burden on the listener(s) to spend time & focus on playing it.
We didn't have audio transcription, so this may change the game a bit. So, if the sender can't (or doesn't want to) type at the moment, could reply to an otherwise text stream via voice. When we started, iMessage, WhatsApp didn't have asynch voice capability, but now they do - I guess having transcription always enabled would be a differentiator.
But in general (a request that I ignored for too long), you'll have to have texting capability in your app too, otherwise people will gravitate towards whatever allows them to read & type without distracting others with playing audio...
Understood on voice messages substituting written communication - but what about when they substitute synchronous meetings and calls? Sometimes async voice can be better where you can communicate a couple pages of thoughts in a few minute, with tone of voice.
Thanks for the comment fblp, I agree with you here: this depends on the situation - sometimes async voice memo can work better than having called another meeting.
> you can communicate a couple pages of thoughts in a few minute
The canonical answer to this is for the sender to spend a couple of minutes to distill down those thoughts into less text. This is solved by improved writing.
I agree for with your reasons, but if they add a transcript feature, and allow 2x playback speed, this could be handy. You could choose to read vs listen / watch. There is a advantage to voice / video which is that you can detect tone and nuance much more readily. You can also listen to your messages while running or driving.
When you’re driving please focus on driving or you’ll end up killing someone.
If you’re paying attention to driving you’re not paying (full) attention to messages; you’ll have to listen to them again once you stop. So just use email :)
Hi the_duke, thanks for your feedback, all your concerns are on point.
If not a secret, did you/your team use any type of voice messaging maybe? I'm trying to find different use cases so we could anticipate any possible issues/bottlenecks down the road.
You're acting like email has to go away if this gets used. Simply use both. There certainly are use cases for this and hearing someones voice can convey things that words can't.
Seems great. The pricing distrubs me. 75$/month this really nothing for big organization with 1000+ employee.
Also, all your testimonials seems fake. People are unfindable and no company is cited. Why do you do this ? This creates trust issues from the beginning
Personally I hate it when people dump voice messages on me on whatsapp/telegram, and I tend to ignore them. An app that stimulates this behaviour even more... Just nope.
And transcription doesn't work well enough so you still have to listen to the messages.
Interesting product. But I can see why other HNers are not so kind to it. It's probably because they are not the target market you should be going after. Nobody is going to switch from Slack to Woice simply because they can now send an audio message - I am sure there apps on Slack that can do this.
Instead of going after the enterprise collab segment which is already highly competitive and does well with text, I think this product needs to go after industries where audio is a necessity.
Say media production companies where video makers collaborate with voice artists. Or, english teaching groups where students submit their homework in audio.
These are all large niches to go after and I am not really sure if there are collaboration tools targeted entirely at them.
this reminds me of the phones that had the 'chirp' / push-to-talk feature that were popular in the early 2000's - which were hugely popular with people in various trades, service industries, etc - think telecom repair crews, construction crews, live event staff, etc - jobs where permanence of the information is not so important but realtime/async/hands-free was. could be a good fit.
Seems interesting
Not to be negative, would be annoying to tell anyone about this app, all the extra effort to make sure they understand the name is woice.me and not voice.me
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I understand that it's often easier to express something with a quick voice message, rather than writing it up. But is it searchable? Is it coherent information that I can refer to, copy and paste? Is it efficiently consumable?
No. More often than not it is a meandering, unreflected ramble with low information density.
You also can't fix mistakes or reword something in a voice messages without re recording the whole thing, so you just leave it as is. Or record an addendum.
Voice messages are more convenient for the producer, but are always more work for the consumer.
Automatic transcripts help a bit, sure. But they only go so far. Both because of accuracy and because of different structure to the content.
I can see niches where this is useful, but I very much do not want to be bombarded with voice messages in a professional context.
This is so true especially for long voice messages. I really don't like listening to people thinking aloud about what they want to tell me. I mean...this isn't a suprised-by-voicemail moment, they intentionally decided they wanted to send this voice message in the first place.
But it gets even worse if you (like me) don't like sending voice messages. Maybe it's just me, but to reply to a lengthy voice message via text I have to listen to it in parts multiple times to adress every question/topic which was raised in it.
I'm totally fine with people calling me, if they prefer voice. But please don't send me voice messages as long you're not in a car or otherwise unable to text and have a real important message.
> I very much do not want to be bombarded with voice messages in a professional context.
I had one client who started sending me voice messages and it drove me nuts. I realised that most people tend to forget what they said in a voice message faster then via other means.
There should be a technology that can automate all the kinds of things a producer can do to make it easier for consumers to search, discover, remix and collaborate with git and so on.
Maybe start a company to do that?
Honestly, I think that voice messages are not the end-all solution for work communication - I'm treating this more as an addition to text messages.
Did you by any chance tried voice messages in your work setting? How did that work out, any specific problems you've encountered?
Found exactly the same thing (even when we/founders were developing it and knew how to use it). It's so much easier to keep blabbing and that will put the burden on the listener(s) to spend time & focus on playing it.
We didn't have audio transcription, so this may change the game a bit. So, if the sender can't (or doesn't want to) type at the moment, could reply to an otherwise text stream via voice. When we started, iMessage, WhatsApp didn't have asynch voice capability, but now they do - I guess having transcription always enabled would be a differentiator.
But in general (a request that I ignored for too long), you'll have to have texting capability in your app too, otherwise people will gravitate towards whatever allows them to read & type without distracting others with playing audio...
The canonical answer to this is for the sender to spend a couple of minutes to distill down those thoughts into less text. This is solved by improved writing.
If you’re paying attention to driving you’re not paying (full) attention to messages; you’ll have to listen to them again once you stop. So just use email :)
If not a secret, did you/your team use any type of voice messaging maybe? I'm trying to find different use cases so we could anticipate any possible issues/bottlenecks down the road.
Thanks in advance!
Also, all your testimonials seems fake. People are unfindable and no company is cited. Why do you do this ? This creates trust issues from the beginning
1) Christopher Hettinger -> A fake person who is selling medicine https://finvsfin.com/rogaine-vs-minoxidil/
2) Ben Schwartzman -> A fake testimonial on an education site https://coursecentral.co.uk/student-success-stories/
3) Isabelle Desjardins -> A random, fake student? https://polban.academia.edu/DianneCastaldo
etc. etc.
If you're going to fake it til you make it, at least choose images that aren't so easily verifiable!
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The benefit of the written word is that it can be scanned, searched, cut, copied etc.
And transcription doesn't work well enough so you still have to listen to the messages.
Instead of going after the enterprise collab segment which is already highly competitive and does well with text, I think this product needs to go after industries where audio is a necessity.
Say media production companies where video makers collaborate with voice artists. Or, english teaching groups where students submit their homework in audio.
These are all large niches to go after and I am not really sure if there are collaboration tools targeted entirely at them.
It's already an absolute nightmare to make sure business data is easily searchable, this would make it a million times worse.
I cannot image a single sane IT manager procuring this for their company.
In addition, if this was added to alternatives as a feature I'd disable it company wide.