Former Microsoft Software Architect wants to re-invent the phone call

When you think about it the fundamental basics of the phone call hasn’t actually changed since Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call all those years ago. Sure we’ve added things like voicemail and VoIP over the years, but it hasn’t had a drastic overhaul. You might think that it doesn’t need to change that much, but former Microsoft Software Architect Ray Ozzie would disagree with you. Ozzie wants to completely re-invent the phone call for the 21st century.

How can one change the humble phone call? Is there much you can do to change a conversation that happens over long distances? Ozzie seems to think so and his app Talko is designed to do just that.

Talko will add a number of different functionalities to the phone call, including the option to tag parts of the conversation, as well as sharing photos and text messages during the conversation, and accessing archives of old calls. It’s primarily aimed at businesses who have to suffer through the dreaded conference call.

Does the phone call really need changing? Do you really want to be able to send text messages to a person you’re talking to anyway? It’s all an interesting prospect, but it’s one that I’m not sure is totally necessary.