A key element of Virtual Airwaves ease of use is that it works just like any handheld radio device: there’s no account to set up, no sign-in or registration, no synchronizing; you just use it and it works.  This philosophy that each mobile phone/tablet is its own separate Virtual Airwaves device is highly practical: the different mobile phones and tablets that you own each have different uses (and often, different users), so with Virtual Airwaves, each device can have its own purpose, with its own collection of channels.

However, there are times when you need to change your phone, or your phone gets cleared, (or worse, you lose your phone…) — so how do you avoid losing that unique set of channels you’ve created and joined?

A standard, if heavyweight, […]

“Ringing” users to initiate a conversation is clearly an essential function; Virtual Airwaves is meant to be lightweight and non-intrusive, so ringing must be the same.  With users managing more channels, we wanted to provide more control for sending and receiving rings.

New Ring Management Features

• Ring Muting: Some channels are more active than others, and especially with a larger group, too much ringing could be distracting.   So now you can mute the ring, so that the ring alert will still appear, but it will not have an audible sound.   Or, you can even block the ring completely, which will prevent any rings for that channel from being sent to you. (If you are the owner of a channel, […]
  

Over the holidays we released a major Beta version that, in addition to continuing improvements in audio quality and overall system stability, introduces a variety of new features which are motivated by how people are using Virtual Airwaves.

What we’ve learned is that Virtual Airwaves really is a unique mode of communication: quick, real-time interaction without the overhead of social networks, contact lists, recorded history, or administration. Our users described Virtual Airwaves as more spontaneous than a phone call, and less intrusive and permanent than a text message.

Consequently, people are creating more private channels than we imagined! Channels for 1-1 communication have proven to be useful as a fast method of contacting a partner or spouse directly.  As developers, we’ve been using a permanent 3-person channel: today we had a quick […]

Today, July 22, we’ve made our 2nd beta release (“build 12”) with lots of new features and fixes based on the great feedback we’ve received from the first release.  The theme behind this release could be called:

 “Better audio, and lots more Ring features” 

We’ve made changes to improve the audio quality, and added new features; these new features are explained below.  All users should pick up this new build as quickly as possible!

1. Who’s Ringing? (Nicknames)

“Ringing” a channel to call everyone has been an unexpectedly popular feature; one of the first questions everyone has when they get “rung” is to ask, “who’s calling?”  So, we’ve added the ability to (optionally) specify a nickname for yourself – a public “handle” that, if you […]