How To Use Mobile Phone As Walkie Talkie

A hardware startup called OnBeep is doing its best Star Expedition fake with Onyx, a clip-on communicator that works over any altitude.

The Onyx is a palm-sized orb that clips onto a lapel, sleeve, or bag strap. It has a built-in speaker and a big button in the middle for activating the device'southward microphone. When connected via Bluetooth to a companion iOS or Android app, it lets a group of users communicate over the Cyberspace with either a Wi-Fi or cellular connectedness.

OnBeep is taking pre-orders for the Onyx at present and plans to showtime shipping by year-end, though the company isn't promising delivery in time for the holidays. A single Onyx will cost $99, and a pair will cost $195, but app and service are free.

Why this matters: Eyes-free, push-button cellular communication has been done earlier—most notably by Nextel around the turn of the century—but no one'south managed to modernize the concept for smartphones. That's what OnBeep is attempting to practise, with a device that works across different networks and operating systems.

While some walkie-talkie fashion apps practise be already, they tend to rely on advertising for revenue and "really desire you looking at the screen," OnBeep CEO Jesse Robbins said in an interview. "For the states, we're really focused on this heads-up experience."

Push-to-talk: The side by side generation

While we haven't withal seen the Onyx up close, it doesn't seem like at that place are whatever glaring gotchas. OnBeep is promising high-quality, depression-latency audio with no limits on how many people can be in a group, and the company says Onyx will piece of work fine as long as information technology'south placed above the waist.

As for battery life, OnBeep claims that the Onyx volition last through at least 12 hours of active use, which involves around 10 to 20 communications per 60 minutes. Robbins said the company has seen instances of longer battery life, but doesn't want to overpromise. The device charges through an included micro-USB cablevision.

onbeeponyx2 — OnBeep's Onyx has a microphone, speaker, silent switch, volume controls and headphone jack.

Users who want to keep communications private tin plug in headphones through the device's included headphone jack, but there'south no wireless option for now. OnBeep has considered calculation back up for Bluetooth headsets, with the Onyx's push withal acting every bit the vocalism gateway, just Robbins didn't requite a timeline.

After launch, OnBeep will be working on premium features that it can sell inside the app. For instance, some users may want additional security or archival features, along with tighter controls over who can invite new members to a group. (Correct now, anyone in a grouping tin invite anyone else.) In general, the company is even so thinking most ways to branch out, and while Robbins wouldn't rule out video-based products, he said it'due south currently a huge challenge given the constraints of mobile devices.

Why hasn't anyone washed this before? Robbins says Onyx was only fabricated possible recently through the maturation of Bluetooth, faster wireless data connections and new ways for hardware startups to get to marketplace.

"Until recently, y'all had to exist carrier or handset manufacturer to exercise this, and no one seems to similar the services they've congenital so far," Robbins said. "That left an opening for us to get through."