Walkie Talkie in Microsoft Teams is Now Available on Android and iPhones

Microsoft is making its Teams Walkie Talkie application available to all users. The feature allows Teams users to turn their smartphones or tablets into walkie-talkies that work over cellular data or Wi-Fi.

The Walkie Talkie app was announced in early 2020 and was launched widely on Android in September 2020. Microsoft has now announced that the feature will be available for all Zebra mobile devices, Android devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS), and iOS devices.

The Walkie-Talkie app in Teams allows users instant push-to-talk (PTT) communication with their team using the same underlying channels they are members of. Only users that connect to Walkie Talkie in a channel can become participants and communicate with each other using PTT, one at a time.

The feature was primarily introduced for frontline workers who had to regularly deal with customers and run day-to-day operations. Microsoft collaborated with Zebra Technologies to make the feature work with a dedicated push-to-talk button for quick and secure communication.

Walkie-talkie features are still uncommon in most communication apps. WhatsApp integrates a feature that allows users to record, send, and receive voice notes. Last December, Slack introduced a Huddle feature, much similar to Discord. In 2018, the Apple Watch made use of the push-to-talk feature over a FaceTime Audio Call.