Zello brings push-to-talk to your BlackBerry and other devices

It seems that push-to-talk has died out recently. It was big in the 00s thanks to Nextel and Boost Mobile, but times have changed. In fact, Sprint is currently phasing out the iDEN network that Nextel and Boost used for push-to-talk services. Yet there is some demand for these services, as evidenced by offering from Verizon and even Sprint. But if you want a different option for your BlackBerry, you have Zello. It’s a free push-to talk app that works not only on your BlackBerry, but also on Android, iPhone and PCs. You will, of course, need a solid data connection to effectively use the real-time push-to-talk app. That’s how your voice is being transferred after all. After that you can use the app to have conversations with anyone else who has Zello installed, no matter what platform they’re using (except Mac OSX). While the basic push-to-talk feature is neat enough, there’s also an added aspect to Zello. It not only puts you in contact with people you know, but it lets you join voice chat rooms. I’m not sure how well this will go over — after all, we abandoned AOL chat rooms for a reason. But it’s a neat little way to communicate, via voice, with people who have similar interests. The freeness of Zello is really what makes it so appealing. You can get Zello for free in App World. The app is only good if you have plenty of contacts on it, so make sure to send everyone you know to that link, or to Zello.com to get it on their devices.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.