This article was taken from the May 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
5 best social voice-messaging apps for those who like to keep in touch -- without typing.
Voxer
At first glance this app appears to turn your smartphone into a walke-talkie. Voxer treats everything as a message so you have a record of all communications. You can listen to them again, faster if need be, and they can be emailed or posted onsocial netwoking sites.
iOS, Android, Free
Bubbly
Bubbly lets you record a message or musing and then post it.
Anyone following your voice logs will get an SMS to notify them of the posting. Unlike other voice-based social apps, Bubbly doesn't require a smartphone and will operate over most mobile phone networks.
Mobile network platform
QWiPS
Tell the story behind a photo or video by annotating it with a QWiPS voice tag. The app lets you record up to 30 seconds of audio that you can share. QWiPS will let you tag SMS messages or add it to an email like a voice signature.
Like other apps you can use the map function to search for nearby voice messages.
iOS
Yiip
Combining nearly all these features, Yiip adds a push-to-talk messaging service. Chat in walk-talkie mode or browse recorded messages from within your social network or those publicly posted.
It groups messages into categories, much like Twitter's hashtags, to make browsing easier.
iOS, Free
HeyTell
Another push-to-talk walkie-talkie-like app, HeyTell will also let you change how your voice sounds as you hold a conversation with one or more people without being interrupted. Along with Facebook and Twitter integration HeyTell will let you add emoticons, geotag posts.
iOS, Android, Free
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
