As if it were a movie from the 90s, the walkie talkie refuses to die. The classic returns to its old ways, Microsoft will offer the Walkie Talkie function within Microsoft Teams. Let’s see what the idea is, designed for field workers.
The Walkie Talkie is already a reality in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft today makes the Walkie Talkie feature available to all Microsoft Teams users. This allows users to turn their smartphones or tablets into a Walkie Talkie that works over data or WiFI. It was announced “just” two years ago, and has been in preview until today.
The target user of such technology are front-line workers, those who are customer-facing and those who direct the day-to-day operations of companies. The manufacturer has partnered with Zebra Technologies to add a dedicated push-to-talk button on a number of Zebra mobile devices. These devices are widely used by these types of workers. They have helped run the world in the worst moments of the pandemic by being essential workers.
The reality is that portable radios and the Walkie Talkie function are still very useful as well as scarce in communication apps. WhatsApp allows us to record audio clips that can be sent and received, and Slack launched its feature last year Huddles, similar to that of Discord. This allows people to easily get in and out of calls. Apple released its own Walkie Talkie feature on the Apple Watch in 2018, using push-to-talk over an audio call Facetime.
We are glad to see that at last Microsoft has released this long-awaited feature. This will help countless workers by being instant communication. We will see if more manufacturers are encouraged to incorporate this functionality as a hardware key so that it becomes popular again.