I get dozens of iPhone app announcements every day, but this one actually made me prick up my ears and listen. That’s because instead of sending text messages, Tinyvox sends voice messages.
The cool thing about the little app is that it makes it stupid simple to record personalized voice messages and send them to your friends or post them to social networking sites. All you do is click the “Record” button, then the “Share” button when you’re ready to send your audio message. You can choose to send your message to either your own e-mail box or to friends, as well as to share it on Twitter, Facebook or even Tumblr. E-mailed sounds are simply sent as an MP3 that you can play back right then and there. Sure, the iPhone already has its voice memo recorder that can send via E-mail or SMS, but it only sends .M4A files, and can’t post and share them online, and TinyVox’s interface beats Apple’s too. Sounds shared online are are stored on the TinyVox website, which is sort of like TwitPic, but for audio snippets. The only thing I don’t like is the lack of privacy controls on shared online messages, and I couldn’t find a way to delete them once they’re posted to the TinyVox site. Hopefully, they’ll add that feature at some point.
In addition, all of your messages can be stored on your iPhone on virtual “cassettes” for later playback, or shared again. Best part of TinyVox is that it comes in a free (ad-supported) version, which actually does everything that the paid “Pro” version does. And with the Pro version selling for a pricey $19.99 (USD), I imagine they really are betting on the free version taking off. On the other hand, if you really do love the app, I’m sure the developers won’t mind you buying the full version to help cover their hosting and development costs.
You can grab TinyVox over at the App Store now.
