Microsoft’s former CSA Ray Ozzie wants to reinvent phone calls

Ray Ozzie, former Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, has decided that voice communication, in other words, the venerable phone call, is broken, and he’s going to fix it. With an app. Talko, his solution, is an iPhone app that basically takes voice calls and voicemail, and gives it all a 21st century spruce-up. You get all sorts of added functionality, like the ability to tag certain parts of a conversation, share photos and text messages during a call, and access archives of old calls. The app is squarely aimed at businesses, and in particular teams that need to work together.

What has Ray Ozzie been focusing on since leaving his position as Microsoft’s chief software architect? Here’s the answer. A new app and online service called Talko, from a company co-founded by the Lotus Notes creator and collaboration software pioneer, is aiming to bring the phone call into the modern era of cloud computing and connected devices. Talko, available initially for iPhone, lets users conduct and record conversations — with a focus on making voice calls and messages more accessible, interactive and collaborative. Features include the ability to tag and bookmark specific moments of a call for easy reference and sharing afterward. For example, it’s possible to search all calls to find moments where a conversation was tagged #budget or #followup, or any other tag a user chooses. Users can also take and share photos with each other using the app during a call, and send text messages through the app.