Zello Walkie Talkie Reviews

by Emeraldsmash

Zello wants you to get their paid service. Nothing wrong with that, except they deliberately refuse to provide support for the free app, all you have is the online faqs. I was on the phone today with a rep asking for help using group conversations. A simple question, after which I’d consider the paid version for our not for profit. I need to be able to compare features in the free vs paid before making a decision. Was flat out told that any q’s for the free app can’t be answered, support will only be offered for and if you sign up for the paid service. Guess what - was going to, but won’t be doing so now. Says a lot about a company they’re not willing to stand behind and offer FULL support to users for their product.

by Max 71530006

Is a good app. But its ridiculous that you'd decrease accessibility with VoiceOver. I'm having trouble getting out of certain screens. One of for example, when I click navigation menu and select one of the screens from there, I can't get out using voiceover without force closing ZelloWalkieTalkie from ZelloWalkieTalkie switcher and opening it back up again. Same for the screen to send an alert message to someone. I can't click cancel. And the send button on that screen isn't labeled for voiceover anymore. It doesn't make any sense. The one thing about making a good quality app is not making it worse and worse with every update.

by Abdesignoriginal

They need to do a better job really /pushing/ the fact that you need WiFi. Everyone who told me about ZelloWalkieTalkie said its perfect for when the power goes out and cellphone towers are down and you can’t communicate with the outside world. That is when WiFi is down so uhhhh yeah. Very frustrating. I was just in Hurricane Florence and then Hurricane Matthew. Florence I thought it was just a glitch but then it also didn’t work during Michael so I just am very upset because that’s when I need it most 🙃 and when you click help, instead of taking you to like an FAQ page or something, it takes you to a website, which also needs internet 🙃

But outside of internet issues, ZelloWalkieTalkie is great. It really is like a walkie talkie for your phone and the basic UI is great.

by KC3CDU

first, ZelloWalkieTalkie .
ZelloWalkieTalkie itselfis great. however, it's drainage of battery is just crazy. fix that and it would be nearly perfect.
one big issue, it's not supported on my Apple Watch🙄😒😖😢😬. ... if you could build a supported Apple Watch version that doesn't drain an abzorbidant amount of batery, battery it would gain a higher rating in my eyes. especiallyif it could run in the background like it can do on your phone.
a larre large ammount amount of people got their watches to play like Dick Tracey. while I got mine for more practicle things, I got it as well thinking I could run Zello. that simply didn't happen unfortionatelyunfortunately. can you make a Zello for Apple Watch?

by Jlthorpe-C354

I’ve been testing then using Zello for my search and rescue team for over 8 months now. I also use a Motorola XTS-5000 and a sitecast RF Box along with computer to patch our trunked 800mhz radio system to our Zello channels. I love ZelloWalkieTalkie and have tweaked the gateway to provide amazing audio and reliability in both directions. My only issue is this. Sometimes instead of passing audio in real time, ZelloWalkieTalkie stops passing audio and starts to store it on the phone. Then I have to go back and replay the audio. In our business this could be dangerous for the user. We won’t use it for mission critical ops without our users being trained on the passing audio issue. I hope this address at some point. All of our users are IOS.

by Max1nc

This may seem trivial but for no apparent reason the dev changed the logo/icon which now doesn't have the "Z" as a part of it. The new icon makes no sense, not quickly drawing the eye to Zello, because it is just an abstract design, again making no sense and changed for no good reason other than for the sake of change itself. And that is never a good, well-founded, valid reason for doing anything. Just go back to the previous, attractive icon and leave well enough alone. I have skipped the latest update, with the new icon, hoping you will change it back before I update. Otherwise, it's a good, useful app which comes in handy sometimes. What does the new design even mean, anyway? How does one get "Zello" or even a "Z" out of that hot mess? Have you ever heard the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ?

by Inna1996

I like ZelloWalkieTalkie alot I got to make a lot of friends on it also i can keep contact with my family and friends .

What I wish you bring back to zello is the fact we can make arabic users because not everyone knows how to read english users and alot of arabic people use ZelloWalkieTalkie and the idea of using volume up and down to catch a mic cause alot of people have a problem getting a mic from the screen also its annoying pressing mic from the screen when theres more then 15 people in a channel it used to be better in 2012, 2013 ,2014 & 2015 when we could do that , people now get annoyed from pressing mics from the screen and end up leaving .

Thanks.

by Caroline Guzman

I’m new on ZelloWalkieTalkie and my friends who are thousands of miles apart love the instant messaging voice app. However, this unfortunately have a lot of bugs, my friends most of the time appear as “standby” when they are not... we made sure we all have ZelloWalkieTalkie running in the back. Few days I’ve notice a beeping from ZelloWalkieTalkie when nobody has sent me a message. It just goes off and that’s pretty annoying. I’d make it work to run in Apple Watch that would be a total game changer...
it’s sad you can only use it via WiFi or data, could be cool if somehow ZelloWalkieTalkie catches radio waves to transmit messages with contacts that are closer to you.

by Sox08

Please change when someone leaves you a walkie talkie message and how you view it.

Now you have to go to the little blue dot to listen. It would be great if you could have a message that stays on the home screen should you miss the original message and then you just press it to listen while it is displayed on the home screen. HeyTell is an app that has this as a feature. I have turned on a lot of people to ZelloWalkieTalkie but all don’t like how you have to go to the blue dot to listen. Again if you miss the walkie talkie message it should be in the home screen and then just hit the message to listen...much easier....please change this and this would make it great.

Update.......so now you can’t can send a walkie talkie message and it stays on the screen but fir how long? Please update app so it stays on your phone screen until you listen to it. Nobody knows once it goes to the blue dot to listen to message. Again The HeyTell app leaves it on your phone screen until you listen to the message. Change that and ZelloWalkieTalkie will be excellent. Sometimes a leave a walkie talkie message and after so long the person never gets the message because they can’t see it.

by TheBronze42112

When ZelloWalkieTalkie works it’s amazing. Super clear audio and solid coverage if you have LTE. One problem is that ZelloWalkieTalkie tends to go into background mode and when that happens you can’t hear people calling you, you only get a visual notification. If you have your device in your hand all the time it works fine but if it’s on your belt you’ll miss calls.

ZelloWalkieTalkie itself can be a little convoluted and hard to follow. Something as simple as approving someone for a channel can take five minutes because it’s not obvious how to do it.

In the end, Zello is the leader because the alternatives are just not that good. Zello IS good but there is still room for improvement.

by Storm View

Hi we have used an assortment of walkie talkies/ preps for work going on 32 years now also we use them for keeping in contact with our family and with 4 kids who love to pretend they are cops and robbers talking on the phone like they are Motorola preps. Very cool.
So Zello is the coolest application this side of the Mississippi River. I can not speak to the inner working of Zello or how secure it is. Seriously I am sure it has some draw backs in the privacy area but if this is of serious concern they offer a commercial version that is $6.00 a month per phone and all two way goes through a DES 256 encryption but you pay for that.
So if your not discussing the movement of “high value clients “ for executive protection ect. then this program gives you outstanding performance for very little visible intrusion.
I have a iPhone 7 with latest IOS and the program ran perfectly from the start on both of our phone. Not a single glitch thus far. Very easy to set up and use. So if your looking for an easy walkie talkie application that work great then Zello is for you.
For what it’s worth I am not compensated in any way by Zello or Apple.

Remember helping some one in need is helping Jesus Him self.
God Bless and God Bless America!

by Pknapp14

I have never rated an app but this one brings so many laughs with the kids. I downloaded thinking I could use even if offline for emergencies. That is the only reason I took one star. In the event internet and cell towers are down its still not a practical way to give, and get imported information. However I have one daughter that does not live at home and one that stays hid in her room. With ZelloWalkieTalkie it’s like we are all back in the same room cutting up and they actually enjoy talking as a family on here. So for family fun , it’s great! And for the child that is not old enough for a cell phone yet but can watch themselves a few hours , it’s a nice way to keep in contact bc god knows he does not know how to answer a house phone . The only thing I would like to see is it work offline for true emergencies.

by Themusicman08

This is a wonderful app and I use it all the time. There’s just one small improvement that it needs. I am a voiceover user and use accessibility features. Whenever I exit ZelloWalkieTalkie , I noticed that voiceover is very slow to respond when in this particular app and I’m not sure why. I have contacted actress abilities hotline for Apple and they have said of course to get in touch with you guys. I have uninstalled ZelloWalkieTalkie and reinstalled it with no success. Please fix the sluggish or slow issue that is happening when exiting ZelloWalkieTalkie . Other than that, keep up the great work.

by Radiowhiskey

Watch out for special interest users. The Emperor Card likes to cyber stalk people and expose them because of his own narcissistic insecurities. So not reveal your full first and last name to this user unless you’re prepared to be harassed. It doesn’t matter if you do anything to him or not, he will invent a scenario in which you spy on him for other users and run with it. He also saved audios and pictures and has files saved on his computer for all of it. Obsessed and dangerous but he’s only found in the banter and roasting rooms. It’s just an app, don’t let it consume you like this guy.

by Turpe Turp

My team uses Zello at work (can’t say what I do). I usually use the Zello app on my city issues phone (windows phone) but the windows version is horribly outdated, and can’t be updated.

I would like to use my iPhone app because I prefer these features, but my issue is that I also plug my iPhone into the USB port on my patrol car to listen to my music. I had issues while doing this.
Sometimes Zello broadcasts my music on the channel. Sometimes the music simply pauses during radio traffic.
I’d like to be able to play music via usb over the car speakers, and hear the Zello communication over my phone’s speaker. Is there anyway to adjust these settings?

by MaxWorldHQ

This is a great app, but there are people who think ZelloWalkieTalkie is magical and can somehow allow them to use ZelloWalkieTalkie without any cell phone service PR WiFi when the towers are all destroyed during a hurricane. Can you please let people know that this is not possible so they will not have a false sense of security and depend on it? I have to fight this battle every time there’s a hurricane and explain to people why Zillo will not work if their cell phone towers are down and there is no Wi-Fi. It’s maddening.

by Big Dave 58

Compleatly steering away from voiceover
This was the go too app when blind users wanted a app to chat that was fully accessible all the way threw
Now the voiceover users can barely use to do anything
1 we can’t add people to our contacts because there is no add button when we click on any 1’s profile
Same with the channels we can’t add any Channel because there’s no add button when we Serch for them so the only way to get in to them is being invited

2 we can’t send any 1 in our contacts a alert because there’s no send button or anything for us to press and send and to top it off there’s no way to back out of it either so we have to close ZelloWalkieTalkie and then open it again to try to do anything else
3 there’s no way to cancel or to back out or save or update our profile so if we tap on profile for anything again we have to close ZelloWalkieTalkie and then open it again to do anything else
Also can’t update our about or our name because when we tap on 1 it just jump to something else or doesn’t open the text field so we can change our name or our about info

Same with options no back, save, done or update button so if we want to change any settings when we’ve made changes we 1 more time have to close ZelloWalkieTalkie and open it get to anything else
Please fix and make accessible for us blind voiceover users

by Rotor Mast

After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was left in total devastation. Communications were pretty much nonexistent. Not knowing the well being of family and friends was a extremely agonizing. ZelloWalkieTalkie was one of the few means we had to communicate with the disaster stricken island and our families and friends. We were able to relay calls and messages stateside for other folks trying to find out about their family members too. I can tell you that it worked perfect!! I can’t thank you guys enough. I highly encourage everyone to get this to chat with family and friends and have it as a backup means of communications. ZelloWalkieTalkie with always be part my phone for the next “Just in Case”
Thank you!!!
BenA.

by NoTanGoNoMbre

I came across ZelloWalkieTalkie in use in a hotel that I worked at. We were all issued iPhones at the beginning of our shifts, as needed. What’s super cool is the fact that you could contact person to person if needed. No reason for housekeeping to hear that I forgot ranch dressing for room 809’s order. Conversely, you could alert multiple departments and individuals if there was an emergency.

Since then, I’ve moved to a very rural area with a lot of open land. It was easy to teach my 80 year old stepfather how to use. Now, he and I can be in contact while acres apart. Super handy!

by Hatch82

I'm a radio geek and ZelloWalkieTalkie turned out to work better than expected. I still prefer traditional 2-way radios from Motorola and Midland. But what makes Zello a great alternative is you don't have to worry about range, FCC licensing, or compatible radios. Best of all, it has end-to-end encryption! You can also join groups and talk to people all over the world! The response time for broadcasts is nearly instant too. Almost like a real 2-way radio.

If you want excellent PTT service with lots of features and/or want an extra tool for emergency preparation, you really should try Zello. As a radio geek, I love it!

by Amirah A

Hi! I really like ZelloWalkieTalkie. I think it’s cool that you can use ZelloWalkieTalkie as a texting and walkie talkie device. But when I tried to get my friends to get ZelloWalkieTalkie , they couldn’t because it wasn’t showing up or available on ZelloWalkieTalkie Store on their phones..I guess. I don’t know if my friends need an update or something, I’m very confused. It is a huge disappointment that I can’t talk to my friends on ZelloWalkieTalkie. I might as well delete it since I can’t talk to anyone. Anyway, I am hoping someone will read this and know what the problem is. In the meantime, I will be deleting ZelloWalkieTalkie and getting another one.

by Jtpalmer

I was skeptical when I heard about Zello, but this works phenomenally well. If you like or need two-way communication functionality (like walkie-talkies or the old Nextel phones) then ZelloWalkieTalkie is for you. Very convenient communication and has probably saved lives in emergency situations when cell towers are jammed with phone calls.

It’s been working flawlessly for a couple days since I’ve been using it. I would love to see Apple open up the ability to map the volume up button as a push-to-talk button. That would make this a 6 star app!

It’s even got some great features I wasn’t expecting like quick replay of the last communication or replaying an entire communication. Channels can be set up to communicate with multiple people at once. You can set your status to available, unavailable, or only available to certain people.

There are not many apps I’d consider game changers, but this one definitely is. Outstanding!