Voxer, the mobile messaging app that started out the year with a little notoriety (thanks to Facebook cutting off its API access), is today taking the next step in its transformation into a paid enterprise push-to-talk and chat product: the company is launching Voxer for Web, a version of the service that links up the company’s paid Voxer for Business iOS and Android apps with a desktop version.
Priced as part of the company’s bigger Voxer for Business service — those rates are currently $4.95/user/month but are going up to $9.95/user/month January 1, 2014 for sign-ups after then — the web version will help Voxer transform from one that can be used as a person-to-person communication system into a more unified product, to also include those who are in a stationary place and need to communicate with many workers. (As for the price hike, Voxer also says that for those who sign up before the end of December, they will get the lower pricing option applied until October 2014).
Voxer for Web essentially takes several of the features from the company’s existing mobile apps for business users and extends them to those accessing from desktop computers, with the ability to push live and messaged audio, sending images and text messages and chat. Added features include the ability to have multiple chats open on a single screen; and voice messages, texts and images sent from a whole team. Users can also listen to multiple chats in live mode — similar to what you get in lower-quality existing dispatch services.
Itamar Kandel, COO at Voxer, tells us that the company has gone for a web version in response to requests from businesses. “We’ve heard from customers across a variety of industries that need to enable their mobile workforces and desk workers to collaborate,” he said. “Voxer for Web addresses this by providing a unified experience while also including unique features that will enable administrators and dispatchers to monitor multiple conversations, people or teams – all from a computer.”
He notes that the idea is that this not just signifies an increase in functionality, but also in terms of the kinds of businesses that Voxer is targeting. “Our vision is that mobile will be for the moving workforce, whereas desktop is ideal for businesses that have large workforces that vox and need to communicate quickly with a central person, such as a dispatcher,” he said. “By adding the ability to send messages from a desktop, we have increased our addressable market tenfold, and can now service the communication needs of not just mobile employees but also the needs of the entire organization. Voxer for Web will serve as the connective tissue between the mobile and stationary workforces.”
Voxer has raised some $30 million to date with backers including Institutional Venture Partners, Intel Capital, SV Angel, TC-founder Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund, Chris Dixon, Roger McNamee, Windcrest Partners and Webb Investment Network.
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