There are tons of interesting apps on the App Store. One interesting app I recently stumbled across is a tool that lets you start a conversation around documents and videos. It is called VoiceThread. VoiceThread is an interesting tool to try out if you want to share videos, educate people, or collaborate on projects.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

VoiceThread is a communications tool that lets you start a conversation around a key document or file. Documents, snapshots, diagrams and videos are all supported. The app can be used for educational purposes, or for communicating about business needs. You can type or draw on top of images to make your point.

Pros

• Has communications tools that’s pretty robust
• Easily draw or annotate on your screen
• Search a large database of videos shared by other VoiceThread users
• Bookmark threads relevant to you for later viewing

Cons

• Network connection is required to use this app
• Search functionality seems like it could use a bit of refinement in terms of retrieving the most relevant results
• You can make five free VoiceThreads using this app: after that, you’ll either have to buy packs of threads, or subscribe. Pro subscritption is $5.99 per month, or you can buy a 5-pack of threads for $2.99
• App had some stability issues (crashes) during testing

Discussion

VoiceThread is a really interesting app. It’s part tool, and part archive. I’ll cover the tool aspects of the app first, and then talk a bit about the ability to search and view the videos which other people have made.

VoiceThread has a variety of applications for business, home life, and student life. You can type or draw over the document itself. You can add content from your library, or use the camera to create fresh photos or videos to structure your thread around. As a tool for communicating, this would be a good app for building out lectures, lessons, or presentations.

From within this app, you can also search for threads by other users. The search works, but I do feel like it could be refined a bit. The first five results for “art,” for example, don’t even have “art” in the video title. There are, however, a lot of interesting videos. Everything from math lessons to storm watch videos, third grade class projects to discourses on Elizabethan fashion is represented here.

VoiceThread is an interesting service, but you can only make five “threads” for free. After that, you’ll either have to buy a 5-pack of more “threads” or subscribe for $5.99 for a month to make an unlimited number of threads.

Conclusion and download link

Whether you’re looking for a collaboration tool or a repository of interesting/educational videos, VoiceThread is a pretty interesting service. Just be prepared for the additional fees you’ll have to pay out if you plan on posting a lot of your own content. Overall, a very interesting and useful app.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.3.1

Supported OS: Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Download size: 1.9 MB

VoiceThread on Apple App Store