Telenav Adds Voice Messaging Feature to Scout Mobile App

Telenav, a provider of location-based services, has added a voice chat feature to its free Scout mobile application. This new "Walkie Talkie" feature enhances Scout's social navigation capabilities.

Now Scout users can communicate and share information with the people they are meeting. Joining friends for dinner, but running late and want to let them know to go ahead and order an appetizer? Just push-to-talk with the updated Scout app, and your friends will hear your message and be able to reply. Going home, and want to let your partner know that the kids should wait up for you? Share your ETA by easily sending a voice message, connecting with the ones that matter most in your life.

"When people are going places, more often than not there are other people involved, whether it's meeting friends at a destination or simply going home to family," said Rohan Chandran, general manager of Telenav's mobile division, in a statement. "And once people are involved, there's a fundamental need for communication. We started out with the simplest piece of information-sharing, to answer 'when will you get there?' We're now introducing the ability to easily communicate with the people that matter. We're committed to making the navigation experience more effective, more meaningful, and a lot more fun, and these are just the first steps along that path."

Scout users can create events, contact and invite friends, choose locations, communicate updates with groups (via text chat) and navigate to destinations with live traffic updates and voice guided turn-by-turn directions. Scout also provides the most up-to-date routes, harnessing the power of over 2 million OpenStreetMap editors, as well as Telenav's 15 years of expertise in mobile navigation.

Voice chat is available today for Scout users on Android mobile devices, with a version for iPhone mobile devices to be released in July.

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