After a long wait, MetroTalk is finally available on the Windows Phone Marketplace. MetroTalk is a new Google Voice client, it's in active development, and has both a paid and a trial version. The two are identical, but the latter is ad-supported.
I started working on this project with the goal to create an application for myself, with only the subset of features of Google Voice that I use, because I wasn't happy with the existing options in the Marketplace. Eventually and because the whole process was so addicting, this turned out to be a full-featured Google Voice client. I worked on this in my free time and although I have some programming experience, I had never worked before with C#/XAML or mobile platforms.
Some of the things that make MetroTalk worth trying are the following:
Thanks for your time reading this! I hope you decide to try MetroTalk, and I'd be happy to listen to your feedback, or answer any questions you may have.
Link to the Marketplace: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/e29cf7f0-dcae-438e-ac88-d3a8d35b7fc5
Website: MetroTalk
I started working on this project with the goal to create an application for myself, with only the subset of features of Google Voice that I use, because I wasn't happy with the existing options in the Marketplace. Eventually and because the whole process was so addicting, this turned out to be a full-featured Google Voice client. I worked on this in my free time and although I have some programming experience, I had never worked before with C#/XAML or mobile platforms.
Some of the things that make MetroTalk worth trying are the following:
- Push Notifications: It's the first GV app to use its own service for push notifications. This has a number of advantages: (a) one less possible point of failure, (b) one less service/developer you need to trust your data with, (c) shorter time for pushing out notifications, since all services run on the same server machine.
- Quick Reply: When the user receives a toast notification, it is possible to click on the notification and load the message instantly. This means that a "lighter" version of the app is launched for handling the click, and the message is displayed without needing to communicate with a server. It is also possible to reply within the same page. This allows for a much faster and efficient day-to-day use; I strongly suggest you try this.
- User Experience: There is a lot of emphasis on this. There is no lag when navigating the app and scrolling through lists. This is especially noticeable vs competitors, when scrolling through conversations that include hundreds of messages. Another example vs the competition is that there is no wait time for the client to log in, before being allowed to perform an action.
- Pin folders/contacts: It is possible to pin both folders and also contacts on the start menu. This makes it much faster to send messages or call people that you frequently communicate with.
Thanks for your time reading this! I hope you decide to try MetroTalk, and I'd be happy to listen to your feedback, or answer any questions you may have.
Link to the Marketplace: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/e29cf7f0-dcae-438e-ac88-d3a8d35b7fc5
Website: MetroTalk