Talk with Walkie Talkie

Walkie Talkie is for talking by voice. Each conversation keeps one timeline of voice and text messages. A message said live is recorded as it is said, so people who were not listening can play it afterwards.

Walkie Talkie is on the website and in the Magpie app; a message sent in one place is in the other. People you invite from outside your team join as guests and can use the conversations they were invited to.

Conversations

• A direct conversation is between two people. It belongs to the two of you and is listed whichever team is selected. You can talk in it while you share a team where both of you use Walkie Talkie, as members or as guests. When you no longer do, it becomes read-only for both of you and says why, with Invite as a guest: once the other person accepts, you can both talk again.
• A group is a named conversation for up to 50 people you choose from the people you share a team with.
• A channel belongs to one team and is listed when that team is selected. Team owners and admins add channels.

Each team also has a channel named after the team, which everyone on the team who can use Walkie Talkie is in, people who join the team later included. It is listed first, and its line in the list starts with Everyone on and the team's name. Walkie Talkie makes it the first time anyone on the team opens Walkie Talkie. People in it start with Live on.

In a team, the people on it are listed under People on and the team's name, under your conversations. Choose someone to open your conversation with them; the first time, this starts it. The people you have talked with come first, then everyone else by name. On a team with many people, a field above the list finds someone by name. On Walkie Talkie now beside someone means they have Walkie Talkie open on a device. Only people on the same team see it.

In Personal, choose Start conversation and pick a person. While nobody else is on your teams and you do not talk with anyone in Walkie Talkie yet, Invite someone is shown in its place. New group is in the page bar in a team and in More in Personal; a new channel is in More.

A new channel starts from one of these kinds, and every setting can be changed afterwards:

• Team: everyone in the team can join and speak.
• Announcements: you and the people you choose speak; everyone else listens.
• Dispatch: by invitation; people wait their turn to speak, and people you give priority can interrupt.
• Private: only the people you add.
• Event: open to the team, with a queue to speak. It closes on its own after a set time.

Channels open to the team are listed under Channels you can join, with Join.

Get started

Until you have sent a message, the conversations page in Personal shows Get started, with two ways to talk with people outside your teams: turning on your talk page and inviting someone. Neither is needed to talk with people on your teams. Choose Skip on a step you do not want, or Hide to take the steps away. Each offers Undo for a few seconds. A step you skip stays skipped, and your talk page is always in Walkie Talkie settings.

A team admin sees steps for the team until someone else is on it and a message has been sent in the team channel: Invite people opens the team's invitations, and Open followed by the team's name opens the channel.

Both lists end with Live talk, which is on. Choose Turn off if you only want to send and receive recordings (see Turning off live talk).

Talking

A conversation opens at its newest message, with the messages above and the Talk button at the foot of the page. Hold Hold to talk, or hold the space bar while nothing on the page is selected. Wait for the time to show on the button and a short tone before you speak, then let go when you finish.

The Live switch beside the conversation's name decides how the message goes:

• Live off. Nobody hears it until you let go. Then, for 3 seconds, the line above the Talk button says it is about to be sent and offers Undo; pressing Talk again sends it at once. To cancel while you are still holding, slide away from the button and let go, or press Escape while you hold the space bar. Direct conversations and groups start with Live off.
• Live on. The button says Hold to talk live and how many people are listening live. Walkie Talkie first checks that nobody else is talking, then the line above the button shows who is hearing you. People listening hear you as you speak. A live message cannot be taken back before they hear it. Channels start with Live on.

For a long message, slide up from the button, or press L while holding it, to keep recording without holding: the button then says Stop. If you cannot hold the button, press Enter on it to start and again to stop, or change it to Tap to talk in Walkie Talkie settings. A recording made any of these ways waits in place of the Talk button when you stop: play it back, then choose Send or Delete. Pressing Talk pauses a recording you are playing.

A recording can be up to 60 minutes. To write instead, use the box under the Talk button.

Only one person talks at a time in a conversation. While someone is talking, the line above the Talk button says who. In a channel with a queue, pressing Talk puts you in line. In a channel where priority can interrupt, someone with a higher priority can cut in by pressing I; the interrupted message is kept and marked.

Listening live

With Live on, you hear other people as they talk, as well as talking live yourself. With it off, their messages arrive as recordings to play. Live is on for one of your devices at a time: turning it on in one browser or in the Magpie app turns it off wherever else you had it on. Live talk plays while the conversation is open. Walkie Talkie remembers whether you left Live on in each conversation. Up to 12 devices hear each message live; everyone else plays it when it is saved.

If you are playing a recording when someone starts talking live, choose Switch to live or keep listening to the recording.

Turning off live talk

Turn off Live talk in Walkie Talkie settings, on the website or in the Magpie app, to use only recordings. Conversations then have no Live switch: your messages are sent when you let go, with Undo, and when other people talk live, their message arrives as a recording to play once they finish. Other people can still talk live with each other. Turning it on again brings back the switch, and each conversation's Live as you left it.

Playing messages

Press the round Play button on a voice message. A message you have not heard yet has a red dot beside its length and says Not heard under it, and Play unheard above the Talk button plays every message you have not heard. When it ends, the unheard voice messages straight after it play in turn, until a text or a message of your own. While a recording plays, the row above the Talk button holds its controls: pause, back or forward 10 seconds, and the speed. The speed applies to every message; the speed they start at is set in Walkie Talkie settings. Walkie Talkie remembers where you stopped in each recording and continues from there. A voice message counts as heard once it has played to the end; opening the conversation does not mark it heard. A message you hear on one device or browser tab shows as heard on your others within a few seconds.

While voice messages are waiting, the same row offers a button such as Play 3 unheard messages, which plays them oldest first. Mark as caught up, in More, clears the count without marking anything heard.

⋯ under a message opens what else you can do with it:

• Reply answers it; while a recording plays, Reply to this moment links your reply to the point you reached.
• Save message keeps it under Saved in Walkie Talkie; Save this moment saves the point you reached while it plays. Only you see what you saved.
• Copy text copies a text message, and Edit message changes one of yours.
• Who has heard shows, on your own message, who has heard it. If you turn off Tell senders when I have heard in Walkie Talkie settings, senders see only that their message reached you.
• Remove from my view hides someone else's message for you only.
• Delete for everyone deletes the message, its recording and any transcript, and leaves a line saying Message deleted in its place. You can delete your own messages; the owner or a moderator of a group or channel can delete anyone's.

Search, at the top of the conversations list, finds conversations and text messages. It finds spoken words only in recordings that have a transcript. Transcripts are available only where the conversation's settings show Transcripts.

When the connection drops

A recording goes to Magpie second by second while you record it, and is also kept on your device until all of it is on Magpie. Nobody can hear it until you send it. If the connection drops while you record, the recording carries on and the line above the Talk button says it is kept on your device; the rest goes when the connection returns. A message that is still sending is listed under the box you write in, and goes when the connection returns, including after the page is opened again in the same browser.

A recording cut short, because the page closed or the browser stopped it, waits in place of the Talk button the next time you open the conversation, with Play it back, Delete and Send. On another of your devices, Walkie Talkie offers what reached Magpie the same way. A recording that is not sent is deleted after 14 days.

While you record, the screen stays on where the browser allows it. Locking your phone still stops the recording; what was recorded until then is kept.

A live message is saved second by second as you talk. If your connection ends part-way, what arrived is kept and marked Incomplete.

Inviting someone outside your team

Choose More, then Invite someone outside your team, or choose Invite someone when it is shown in place of Start conversation. The person becomes a guest of your Personal, with their conversation with you and nothing else of your work, and is listed on Personal's guests page (Guests on a team).

Enter their email address and choose Email the invitation: the drawer confirms the address it was emailed to. The invitation works for 14 days, and someone who already has a Magpie account at that address also finds it on Your teams. Or choose Make a link instead and copy the link to send it yourself. A link works for 7 days, for up to 25 people, and each person who uses it gets their own conversation with you. For someone already on your team, choose them under People on your team, or use Start conversation in Personal. The person signs in or makes a free account to accept. How many guests Personal can have depends on your plan.

Anyone can also reach you through your talk page, a public address where they record a message without an account first: Your talk page.

Invitations nobody has answered yet are listed under Invitations waiting, where Withdraw stops one working. A link that was used up, withdrawn or has expired opens a page that says the invitation is not available.

In a channel's settings, its owner or a moderator can make a link that works for 25 people over 7 days. Someone not on the team who uses it joins as a guest of the team, with that channel only. The team channel has no links, and guests are never in it: invite people to the team to add them.

Conversation settings

Open More on a conversation, then its settings and members.

For you only:

• Pinned keeps the conversation at the top of your list.
• Notifications is All or Off: whether the Magpie app on your phone tells you about new messages in the conversation. It starts on All, the team channel included.
• Mute stops live talk playing to you and those notifications for the time you choose; messages still arrive.

For the conversation (in a group or channel, its owner and moderators change these, and in the team channel, the team's admins; in a direct conversation, either of you):

• its name and purpose;
• who can speak, whether there is a queue, and whether priority can interrupt;
• Live for people who join: whether Live starts on for someone who joins. People already in the conversation keep their own choice;
• in a direct conversation, Reply times, a note shown under its name;
• in a channel, what new members see: messages from when they join, the last few days, or the whole history; and whether it is open to the team;
• how long messages are kept; older messages, their recordings and transcripts will be deleted;
• its status: active, paused, completed or archived. A conversation that is not active keeps its history and takes no new messages.

Under members, the owner and moderators can make someone a moderator, member or listener, let a member speak or make them listen only, set someone's priority when priority can interrupt, and remove people. Removing someone stops live talk reaching them at once and closes the history to them. Recordings they already downloaded stay with them.

Leave conversation in More (Leave group or Leave channel in a group or channel) takes you out of it. Someone has to add or invite you again for you to come back, except to a channel open to the team, the team channel included, which waits under Channels you can join. Walkie Talkie does not add you back to the team channel after you leave it. Someone who leaves the team leaves its team channel at once.

In the Magpie app

The app has the same conversations, settings and Saved messages as the website, and the same conversation window: the Talk button at the foot, the line above it saying what pressing it will do, and the text box under it. What differs on a phone:

• Hold the Talk button to talk and let go to send. Slide your finger up to keep recording without holding; the button then says Stop. Slide your finger away from the button and let go to cancel. With a screen reader, double tap the button to start and again to stop, then send.
• In a channel where priority can interrupt, an Interrupt button appears beside the line that says who is talking.
• A recording is kept on your phone until Magpie has all of it, and goes when the connection returns, including the next time you open the conversation. The screen stays on while you record.
• Your phone tells you about new messages while the app is closed. The notification says who sent a message and how long a recording is, not what was said. Turn notifications for one conversation off in its settings on the website, or for the app in your phone's settings.
• An iPhone plays a message recorded in a browser from a copy Magpie makes for it, so the first person to play one may wait a moment.
• Choosing a handle for your talk page and its pictures for Instagram stories are on the website.

Recordings and privacy

Everything said in a conversation, live or recorded, is kept as a recording in it. Team admins do not get access to direct conversations or groups, or to channels they are not in. Copies of a recording that someone downloaded are not affected when it is deleted.

If the microphone does not start, allow it in the browser's address bar and check that no other app is using it. If something else goes wrong, Contact support.