If built-in audio recording stops working on your smartphone, try Vocaroo
BlackTechLogy Vocaroo Review: Free voice memo service comes in handy for job interview questions, social media audio and complicated texts
This post is part of a series entitled “BlackTechLogy.” Click here for the archived posts.
Writer’s note: Although I am an Amazon Affiliate, the following Vocaroo recommendation is not a paid advertisement. It was written freely, voluntarily and solely based off of me being impressed with the platform after using it for a job recommendation.
As soon as I pressed “send,” I had a funny feeling that my message would be misinterpreted. Anybody who has seen the “Key & Peele” skit about text messages and tone knows recipients can often misinterpret a sender’s voice based on how they feel about that person or what kind of day they’re having. Plus, sarcasm doesn’t always land the same way without an audio text, a Bitmoji, a GIF or all three.
Even when my smartphone’s mic stopped working for built-in audio recording to send via text messenger and three different Help Desk reps couldn’t help me troubleshoot the problem (without immediately asking me to upgrade or trade in my phone), I could still record videos on my phone with or without downloading them to YouTube. If I needed to visually show something, I could log into Loom.com and record audio that way, but I had no visuals to go with my message.
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The audio recording option (or sound recording) still worked everywhere else, just not to send via text messenger service. All the recipient would hear on the other end of the line sounded like white noise no matter where I recorded the audio message: outside, in a quiet room, with or without headphones, or close to the mic. The text messenger feature just died out of nowhere. So, I sent a text message without GIFs, without Bitmojis and no audio, hoping the recipient would understood my dry humor.
“How could you say such things?” was the immediate response.
I dropped my head. I knew it.
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This was “Key & Peele” all over again. Had I known about Vocaroo, the “premier voice recording service,” I would’ve just used that. I ended up sending the same written message to her with Bitmoji expressions where it made sense, and she understood my intentions were light-hearted.
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Vocaroo is free and user-friendly — without requiring participants to create an account or a login. For detailed privacy information regarding how your voice may be used or saved, including the use of advertising, please see the Privacy page.
If you’re comfortable, try it out today. It’s less time-consuming than setting up Loom and making sure all of your pop-up blockers are off. Just press record, start talking like you would with built-in sound recording and get an immediate shareable link. If you want to download the message to use it later, you’re welcome to do that too.
Sometimes a meeting should be an email, and sometimes an email or text message should be a Vocaroo.
Click link to hear audio or press play above.
The only con on this platform is as soon as you press the refresh button, it immediately starts recording again. Be careful not to record something you didn’t intend to, thinking Vocaroo is on “stop” mode. Leave Vocaroo on the shareable link page until you’re ready to record something else, or close the browser page altogether until you’re ready to use it.
Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday. Thanks for reading!