Show HN: Send Audio Messages in Gmail | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Send Audio Messages in Gmail

nat.app

36 pointsnathanganser16 comments

Audio messages have their place but sometimes it's one of the worst ways to communicate.

The only way I would even consider working with someone sending audio files over email would be if it at least included an automated transcription.

I really don't want to listen to your 3 minute audio file when I could have read it in 30 seconds.

This is exactly how I feel about tutorials on YouTube.

>> I really don't want to listen to your 3 minute audio file when I could have read it in 30 seconds.

Almost 19yrs ago, at my employer, it was common for people to send an "Octel" which was similar to a voice message. There were a couple of reasons to send an Octel instead of an email:

- You couldn't quote/parse/forward it (often used for more sensitive messages)

- The system also had an optional feature where you couldnt forward it if the sender didnt want.

- This was before smartphones, so it wasnt easy (though not impossible) to re-record it and forward it.

- It captured nuance better than email.

- It was harder to respond quickly and you thought about your response more carefully.

Most of these seem like good features, depending on your perspective. However, in 2020, none of these are possible anymore, especially with a gmail attachment.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/octel-messa...

This is fascinating, I didn't know about it! Thanks for sharing!

Yeah,

that's feedback we received from users as well. I do agree when it's about quick and efficient (& non emotional) communication.

But I do believe that (especially now with COVID), having an async way to communicate that ressembles human communication (aka. hearing the tone of voice, the speed of talking, ..) does really add value, don't you think?

A few reasons to send an audio message for me would be: - To give a life update - To explain something that happened - To share ideas

A few reasons not to send an audio message: - To ask if you're joining the meeting on Monday - To ask you to send a document - T share some business KPIs

Very interesting to see audio messages pop up as a feature, especially as a value-add in an analytics tool like this!

I'm working hard on an MVP of a system with some similar ideas, so I'm keeping a keen eye out for things like this. My own work is more about bringing audio messages into the daily team chat environment, e.g. in a context similar to slack or IRC. And as one user noted is a must, it includes auto-transcription.

If anyone is interested, there's some info up about it at https://heysync.chat -- hopefully people don't feel it's too self-promotion-y to add a link!

Very interesting. We had earlier dabbled with audio platform in emails.

As it turned out, most of the money to be made is in email campaigns and for that we created personalised audio whose permalink can be shared with an image inside the email.

Wistia did this for video

Thanks for the insights :) For us it's really a side product that will help drive growth for our main product!

Very neat. Any plans for a mobile version?

Thanks! I've actually been wanting a mobile version as well but it's much harder to pull off as it requires a much more in depth integration with Gmail's api.

We will build it but probably as part of our Personal CRM app and not as a stand-alone product due to the time & energy required.

Hope that makes sense!

Nice - how did you manage to store audio locally yet enable both parties to have access?

I'm sure it's just sent as an attachment.

Yep :) Thanks for the message!

It's sent as an attachment of course :-)

What I mean is that it is first stored locally, then sent as an attachment and that's it. It's not like we upload it somewhere and add the link to the email for ex.

Hope that clarifies!

NeXT computers could do this in the 1980s.

And somehow we forgot how to do it... until now :)

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