Best Walkie Talkie App for Android and iPhone

A walkie-talkie app is push-to-talk over the internet. You hold a button and speak, and the other phone plays your voice straight away. That is why nearly all of them need Wi-Fi or mobile data at both ends, and why distance does not matter to them. The few that work with no connection only reach phones close by.

We went through the Google Play and App Store listings of the five apps this article named in 2020, and of the apps that come up now when you search either store. Four of the five are still there. Apple’s own Walkie-Talkie for the Apple Watch is on its way out.

What your watch can do

Apple Watch: Apple’s support page says Walkie-Talkie has been discontinued with watchOS 27. Once a watch is updated the app disappears, and it cannot be downloaded again from the App Store. On watchOS 26 or earlier it still works, but only with friends who have not updated either. Both people also need FaceTime set up on their iPhones.

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Samsung has its own WalkieTalkie app on Google Play. It is free and for Galaxy Watches only, and the listing names the Galaxy Watch 4 and later. You talk watch to watch, one to one or in a group, and nothing needs installing on the phone. Setting it up takes a Samsung account and a Galaxy phone with a phone number. After that it uses the watch’s own connection or the phone’s.

For phone to phone, you need one of the apps below.

Walkie-talkie apps compared

Zello: the one to try first

Zello is the free pick for most people. It is on Google Play and the App Store, and its own website lists Windows and Mac versions as well. The Google Play page carries no ads label.

You can talk to one contact privately or open a channel, and the listing puts the ceiling for a channel at 6,000 people. Messages are kept, so you can replay anything you missed. The iPhone listing says Zello keeps playing while you use other apps or with the phone locked. The Android one adds that you can map a hardware talk button, and use a Bluetooth headset on selected phones.

The in-app purchase is Zello Work, a paid version for businesses. Friends and family can ignore it. One limit worth knowing: Zello only talks to Zello. Its listing says it does not connect with Voxer or with the push-to-talk services that mobile networks sell.

Voxer: live voice that is also voicemail

Voxer puts push-to-talk inside an ordinary chat thread, next to text, photos and video. Every voice message is recorded, so the other person can hear it live or play it later. Its listing says private chats can be end-to-end encrypted. It is on Google Play and the App Store, and Voxer’s website mentions a web version.

Read the listing closely before you choose it for the walkie-talkie part. Its walkie talkie mode, where voice arrives hands-free even when you are not in the app, is listed under the paid Voxer Pro+AI subscription. The free version also keeps only 30 days of messages. Zello’s listing offers listening with the phone locked and mentions no charge for it.

VoicePing: written for work crews

VoicePing is aimed at teams. Its listing talks about dispatchers and field workers, and names rugged phones with a physical talk button that it supports, among them Samsung’s XCover range and CAT phones.

Personal use is free. There are 9,999 public channels that anyone can join, and you can ask in the app for a private family channel with five free users. Voice plays even when the phone is locked, and text, pictures and video share the same screen. The paid side is an enterprise service with private channels and an admin portal. The listing states that you must be connected to the internet. It is also on the App Store.

Two Way: no account, open channels

Two Way is the simplest app here. There is no sign-up of any kind: the listing says it asks for no account, email address or phone number. You choose a channel, tell your friends which one, and hold the button to talk. It works over Wi-Fi or mobile data.

The simplicity has a cost. Every channel is public, so anyone who enters the same one can hear you. The developer’s own advice is to choose a long, unusual channel name. Treat it like a real radio: fine for a convoy or a hike, wrong for anything private. The Android version shows ads. The iPhone version is on the App Store.

Walkie-talkie apps that work without internet

The apps that work offline connect the phones to each other over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and that keeps the range short. Expect to cover a house or a convoy of cars, not the next town.

Slide2Talk (Android) is the most useful of them because it does both jobs. Over the internet it behaves like the apps above. When the phones are on the same Wi-Fi network, which can be one phone’s hotspot or Wi-Fi Direct, it sends voice straight from one to the other with no internet at all. Its listing says there is no registration and no ads, and that voice is end-to-end encrypted. Google Play does show an in-app purchases label. Its website offers no iPhone version.

Intercom for Android makes group calls over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with no internet, no account and no contact list. Its listing suggests it for a motorbike rider and passenger or between vehicles, and gives a range of up to 100 metres. It is free with ads. The listing says it also talks to an iPhone app called Infinite iNtercom, which is a paid app on the App Store.

DirectTalk (iPhone and iPad) uses the phone’s Wi-Fi radio to reach other devices running it nearby, with no network of any kind. Its developer is frank about distance: usually good within 10 metres, and up to about 30 in open space. New users get sessions of 15 minutes free, as many as they like, and a one-time purchase removes the limit.

Google Play has many more apps with “offline” in the name. The ones we opened did not say how far they reach, so they are not in the table. If you need to talk over real distance where there is no signal, that is a job for a pair of actual radios.

Which one to pick

• Family, friends or a group, on any mix of phones: Zello. Free, no ads label, and it keeps a history.
• A quick channel with people who will not sign up for anything: Two Way, as long as nothing you say is private.
• Voice messages people can answer later: Voxer, accepting that its hands-free mode is paid.
• A team at work with rugged phones: VoicePing.
• No signal, Android phones, short distance: Slide2Talk over one phone’s hotspot.
• No signal, iPhones, short distance: DirectTalk.

If you would rather see the person you are talking to, our guide to free video calling apps covers that.

What happened to the old list

Breakr, the fifth app in the 2020 version of this article, no longer turns up when you search Google Play or the App Store. The apps using that name today are unrelated.

Two names you will run into need a word. Walkie Talkie – All Talk App, from Picslo Corp, comes up high in searches on both stores. Despite the name it is a social app for joining voice conversations with strangers by topic, so it is no use for reaching your own family. And ten ten, which people in India search for, is on the App Store from a seller called Ten Ten. The Google Play app using that name comes from a developer account with a different name, so we could not match it to the same maker and left it out.

Quick answers

Is there a walkie talkie app that works without internet?

Yes, over short distances. Slide2Talk and Intercom for Android work between Android phones on the same Wi-Fi or over Bluetooth, and DirectTalk does it between iPhones. None of them replaces a radio over long range.

What is the best free walkie talkie app?

Zello. It is free on Android and iPhone, its Google Play page shows no ads label, and channels hold up to 6,000 people.

Can an iPhone and an Android phone use the same walkie talkie app?

Yes. Zello, Voxer, VoicePing and Two Way are all on both Google Play and the App Store.

Does the Apple Watch still have Walkie-Talkie?

Only on watchOS 26 or earlier. Apple says the app is removed when a watch updates to watchOS 27, and a watch on the older software cannot start a conversation with one that has updated.

Is there a walkie talkie app for Samsung watches?

Yes. Samsung’s WalkieTalkie app on Google Play works on the Galaxy Watch 4 and later, and talks only to other Galaxy Watches.