Turn Your Phone into a Modern Walkie-Talkie

Turn+Your+Phone+into+a+Modern+Walkie-Talkie

Laura Drum, Advisor

One of the newest applications for your favorite mobile device is finally getting some serious use.  Marco Polo, a walkie-talkie type service allows users to communicate via video chats, versus a typical text dominated message.  Users can speak, through video, to any other user for an unlimited amount of time.  The other user can watch the message live or view it later at their convenience.  They can choose to respond via video message or text.  Users can communicate back and forth at their leisure, sharing any length of message with a number of video filters, drawings, as well as the traditional written text.

Just like the popular musical.ly app, Marco Polo, has been around for more than a year, but is recently getting some serious attention.  While some users have complained about the app spamming their contact list, the number of users has increased significantly each week giving users a Snapchat and Tapstack vibe all in one.

The video message platform has a number of applications.  The verbal exchange of ideas is much more fluid and effortless than that of the written word.  Consequently, users can create groups allowing them to send one video message to group of people.  In schools, students can use this to communicate with each other on a project.  A message or lesson can be delivered effortlessly to a class of students outside of the actual classroom.  Teachers can collaborate on a project when the group has various prep periods.  The applications for this platform extend far beyond the classroom.

How could Marco Polo make your life easier?