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 in preview and open to Magpie's site administrators. People they invite 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.
• A group is a named conversation for up to 50 people you choose from your teams and the people you already talk with.
• A channel belongs to one team and is listed when that team is selected. Team owners and admins add channels.

To start one, choose Start conversation and pick a person, or use More for a group or a channel. While nobody else is on your teams and you do not talk with anyone in Walkie Talkie yet, Invite someone is shown in place of Start conversation.

Talking

Hold Hold to talk, or hold the space bar while nothing on the page is selected, and speak. Let go to finish. Slide up from the button, or press L while holding it, to keep recording without holding: press Stop when you finish. In Walkie Talkie settings you can change the button to Tap to talk, which starts and stops with a tap each.

Before you talk, choose how the message goes:

• Record, then send. Nobody hears it until you send it. Play it back, then choose Send or Delete. Direct conversations start in this mode.
• Live. Walkie Talkie first checks that nobody else is talking, then shows who is hearing you live. People listening hear you as you speak. A live message cannot be taken back before they hear it. Channels start in this mode.

A recording can be up to 60 minutes.

Only one person talks at a time in a conversation. While someone is talking, the page 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

Live talk plays only when you turn on Hear live talk on this device. It plays on one of your devices at a time: turning it on in one browser turns it off in any other browser where you had it on. It plays while the conversation's page is open. Walkie Talkie is not in the Magpie app yet. 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.

Playing messages

Messages play at the speed set in Walkie Talkie settings. The speed button on a message changes it for every message. 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. Play unheard plays the messages you have not heard, oldest first. Mark as caught up clears the count without marking anything heard.

Choose Save on a message, or Save this moment while it plays, to keep it in Saved. Reply to this moment links your reply to the point you reached in the recording.

The sender can choose Who has heard. If you turn off Tell senders when I have heard, senders see only that the message reached you.

When the connection drops

A recorded message is kept on your device until all of it has been sent, and shows as Waiting to send until then. It is sent when the connection returns, including after the page is reopened in the same browser.

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. Enter their email address and choose Email the invitation, or choose Make a link instead and copy the link to send it yourself. The link works once, for 14 days. For someone already on your team, use Start conversation. The person signs in or makes a free account. They see only their conversation with you and do not join your team.

In a channel's settings, an owner or moderator can make a link that works for 25 people over 7 days.

Channel settings

Open More, then the conversation's settings, to change:

• who can speak, and whether people listen only;
• the queue, and whether priority can interrupt;
• what new members see: messages from when they join, the last few days, or the whole history;
• how long messages are kept, and whether the conversation is active, paused, completed or archived;
• members' roles, and removing members.

Removing someone stops live talk reaching them at once and closes the history to them. Recordings they already downloaded stay with them.

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. Delete for everyone deletes a message's recording and text from Magpie; copies someone downloaded are not affected.

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.