- [Michael] You know what's terrible?
Phone calls.
They take a lot of time, they meander,
they make your ears sweaty,
and if you miss one, you have to deal with the only thing
worse than a phone call.
Voicemail.
The cure for phone calls was supposed to be messaging,
but you know, that's also getting kind of terrible.
All day, every day, is an avalanche of notifications
with time-consuming, tapped out messages
volleying back and forth.
There used to be something in between these two extremes.
It was called Push to Talk.
You remember, it's the feature that instantly
transformed the guy behind you in line
into the worst person ever.
(man talking loudly in background)
- You're outta your mind.
(voice echoing)
- [Michael] And maybe you're filled only with loathing
for the time of walkie talkies on phones
but I miss it dearly,
because the whole idea behind it was getting things done.
(upbeat music)
In fact, done was the whole slogan of the industry leader
in walkie talkie phones circa 2004, Nextel.
Full disclosure, I worked for Nextel at the time
so my recollections are no doubt rosier than the reality.
But even today, it's tough not to admire
the company's bold, aggressive advertising.
As its VP of Marketing said in an interview at the time,
people use Nextel not to chat and play games
or send SMSes to girlfriends, but to get things done.
The state of Push to Talk has suffered
since those halcyon days of mobile.
Voice minutes are now largely unlimited on most carriers,
making the money-saving aspect of PTT moot,
and a network capacity crunch and disastrous acquisition
by Sprint didn't do Nextel any favors either.
So diminished is the importance of PTT that Sprint
doesn't even offer Push to Talk phones for review.
Fortunately for this video, AT&T came to the rescue
with a couple loaners.
You may remember this phone from a video
I published last summer.
It's simple, it's rugged,
and it's got a big button on the side for walkie talkin'.
Now this is obviously more a business product than anything.
On its website, AT&T calls out all the corporate uses
for walkie talkies,
like tracking your fleet of truck drivers
or managing a squad of security personnel.
If you want Push to Talk
for your own personal or family plan,
it's still available for about five bucks a month per line.
That gets you unlimited access on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon,
though they're not interoperable.
And the way it works is this.
You decide who you want to talk to,
as you can see, my options are pretty limited,
and you push to talk.
In about one or two seconds usually, you're connected.
And that's the beauty of this whole thing.
You're not waiting for a regular call to connect
and then ring through,
and you don't have to leave a voicemail
if they're not there.
You just connect, talk, and stop talking when you're done.
If they're not there,
well then maybe you send them a message.
And because PTT uses the same cellular network
that voice and data do, it works nationwide.
No current offerings are as fast as the old Nextel,
which had a network built for the purpose,
but it's still faster than a phone call
and a damn sight quicker than tapping out a text.
Now let me tell you why you hate it.
Because jerks ruined it.
There was a code of etiquette that courteous users
adhered to back in the day,
and it had two huge important points.
One, no barging.
That means don't just hold down the button and start talking
because it's weird for the other guy,
when his phone comes to life with a human voice
and he's just trying to live his life.
And two, no using the speakerphone
when it might annoy other people.
Here's the thing that nobody seemed to know.
Every Push to Talk phone has a privacy mode
which disables the loudspeaker
and lets you carry on a half duplex call
through the earpiece.
Push to Talk didn't need to be intrusive.
It was discourteous users that made it so.
Today you don't need special hardware
to use your phone like a walkie talkie.
Apps like Zello and Voxer bring the functionality
to any Android or iPhone.
You don't need to worry about what carrier you're on
and they've taken it to the next level
with social features.
But you need to first find and launch the app
and then keep it running to make sure it stays working.
Those extra steps eliminate some of the immediacy
that made classic Push to Talk so appealing
where you could just push a couple buttons
to be instantly connected.
(phone beeping)
Did you use Push to Talk back in the day?
Is it still a part of your work today?
Share your stories in the comments
and be sure to subscribe to Mr. Mobile on YouTube.
Till next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.
(upbeat music fading)