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watchOS 5 Beta 2 Includes Functional Walkie-Talkie App

This looks fun, but my Watch is on a permanent silent mode (why have it doing annoying sounds if I can just feel the taps on my wrist), so it seems like I’m out of luck? Sounds stupid, that’s what DND is for.
 
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I kinda always thought it was pretty dumb to include a Walkie Talkie option in the first beta yet non-functional...

Just a "Walkie-Talkie (Coming soon)" would have been better. Otherwise gave high hopes to users..

It's like being excited opening up your birthday present, only when you unwrap it, your face suddenly drops.
 
Lidar said:
The only thing I dont understand why Apple didn’t add, is the ability to notify you before the other person blasts out over your speaker something obscene in a crowded area.

At least Star Trek’s communicators told you that someone was wanting to talk to you first. You know that beep that is coincidentally my text tone? :cool:
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I've got the same tone. :)
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bbeagle said:
The other person HAS to approve. They need to have their walkie talkie ON, and on the particular channel you're broadcasting on.
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Well that's the thing, you have to leave a walkie talkie on to use it at all, and there are only a few channels. People can also scan channels. As a kid, I used to love finding some people talking, listening for a minute, then surprising them when I respond randomly. Of course some people are jerks and spam the channel instead.
 
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Does it work in real time or does it record your voice and then send it?
What happens if people on both ends try to talk at the same time?
Does it support group conversations with more than 2 people?
 
oneMadRssn said:
What most people that never used Nextel didn't appreciate was it was extremely low voice latency with the walkie talkie feature. Like, nearly CB radio low latency. This is one of the reason construction guys liked it so much. When operating a crane or loading big heavy things, the delay you get with a cell phone voice call can be too much. When you say stop, you want the other guy to hear it immediately (or as close to immediate as possible). Other than using a CB radio, Nextel was the next best thing.
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It was easy to go to the FCC and look up the frequency used and spy on all those people too. Good times
 
VictorTango777 said:
Does it work in real time or does it record your voice and then send it?
What happens if people on both ends try to talk at the same time?
Does it support group conversations with more than 2 people?
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It's real time and it doesn't work that way because you can't push down to talk while the person on the other end has their button pressed. Doesn't seem to have an interface to support group conversations, but I technically don't know anyone else with the beta yet.
 
neoian said:
Kind of defeats the point of silent mode IMO
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Pretty sure that's just a beta-bug.

I think this is gonna be a pretty big hit. I see teens getting a kick out of this.
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fairuz said:
Nah, the whole fun of walkie talkies is that the other person doesn't even approve. You just blast whatever you want on a certain frequency.
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Yeah and I think it's a perfect for it to come back in. The WalkieTalkie reborn in an Apple Watch. That's sounds pretty dope.
 
Nice to see a feature that was dropped from the original watch make its way back into real world.
 
This works like a real walkie talkie. If you’re concerned about notifications, just use voice iMessages instead. This is best used when you’re out at the park, in emergencies, etc.
 
Seems like someone messed up at Apple... either they named the watchOS package wrong, or Newsstand is coming to Apple Watch!

IMG_1634.jpg
 
This is a cool feature and I will probably have to buy my gf an AW just so i have someone to use this with/annoy.

Back in the mid-to-late 80's i actually had a pair of wrist-straped walkie talkies. I think they were Rambo branded ones, or A-Team. One of the disadvantages of these were the fact that when you were playing soldiers and sneaking up on the enemy team, sometimes your team mate might say something at the wrong time and give away your position. Having the 'press to receive' Apple version will be better for this situation.
 
It seems to me that the difference in a facetime audio and walkie talkie is the interface, and push to talk feature.
If so, just have facetime audio on the watch, with a push to talk feature.
 
It's very hard to get excited about this because it pushes me to buy a new Watch, which if I do:

• I have to really be very mindful and evaluate the of cost to update; and
• what does it mean for the life of my Series0 going forward? (a Watch might be cheap for you blokes in the US, a Series 3 with GPS + Cellular is AU$599.00, which isn't a drop in the ocean)
 
oneMadRssn said:
What most people that never used Nextel didn't appreciate was it was extremely low voice latency with the walkie talkie feature. Like, nearly CB radio low latency. This is one of the reason construction guys liked it so much. When operating a crane or loading big heavy things, the delay you get with a cell phone voice call can be too much. When you say stop, you want the other guy to hear it immediately (or as close to immediate as possible). Other than using a CB radio, Nextel was the next best thing.
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From what I was reading, once you establish a walkie talkie session with a contact (other side allows), it establishes a FaceTime audio call in the background with both sides muted. When you press the PTT button, it unmutes the call. So this should theoretically be pretty fast.
 
and 1989 others said:
That's not what a wallow talkie does. A walker talkie it's a hand set which is in an open frequency with zero latency between speaking and the listeners hearing. More than one. This is nothing more than VoIP on the watch.
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wallow walker what?

:p:Do_O

I think this is a cool feature, and I'm glad to see Apple having a sense of fun! I always thought that the "Walkie-Talkie" name was trademarked, but guess not. In fact, I'm surprised to learn that it's a Canadian invention!

Canadian inventor Donald Hings was the first to create a portable radio signaling system for his employer CM&S in 1937. He called the system a "packset", although it later became known as a "walkie-talkie"
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Has anyone tried this feature and think it'll be a useful thing in general settings? I can't imagine a construction team would all be outfitted with Apple Watches and it would be safe to use them in certain work settings, so is this something that will likely end up filed alongside Ping in the long run?
 
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It looks as if Apple is still trying out features to find the killer Apps. But I think they had it already. Health.

Why cant they make a health band without Apps support.
 
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