Zello Walkie Talkie
reviews and complaints

I was looking for something better than Voxer. I wanted something more of a direct two way, like radios or PTT. Voxer seemed to record my message and then send it for the other person to choose to listen too, not what I wanted. So I decided to try Zello - and I love it. It's like "direct connect" on Nextel, immediate and clear with the option for alerts and my history is save for me to replay messages and to delete anytime
I want. When I have a poor data connection it's not the most ideal form of communication or app and causes a bit of frustration but rarely am I without service so it works great for me. I love the UI and find it very nice especially the big round PTT button. The history tray could slide up easier but that's the only suggestion I have at this point. My whole family uses this and my husband and I just used it over a long road trip and I think I finally convinced him this is far better than his other PTT app's!

first and foremost, this is one terrific app. Lots of features. One of my favorite being that the conversations are recorded in case you ever wish to review a conversation. And for those wondering if it works over long-distance I can tell you that I paged a coworker from my location in Dallas Texas to Philadelphia and I heard him loud and clear. with that being said, I've noticed that after a period of time the loud and clear sound that I hear over the speakers becomes very muted. I have attempted to close the app and also restart my phone and the issue remains the same. I have now had to delete the app twice and reinstall it to get it working properly again. I noticed this happens when I have the Uber app also running on my phone as I drive for Uber part-time. so clearly there is a conflict going on one other apps are running in the background that also require sound. if you guys can figure this out then you definitely deserve a five star rating.

iPhone 5 w/ latest updates and been using Zello v2.1 since it came out and it's a BIG leap backwards. Not nearly as good as pervious versions. Where to start…..audio quality it horrible. Even on full volume, with playback amplifier all the way up, it's barely audible. Zello acknowledges this with a pretty lame excuse on their help page. Older versions didn't have this problem. The white background is tough to look at; bring back the orange and black. It was much easier to read. The interface is not intuitive at all, and a pain to navigate thru.

All I want is a simple, well-functioning 2-way radio app without all the "cutsie" convoluted baggage that the current version has. Zello used to be that way and was my "go to" app for quick, effective 2-way comms. I'm already looking at other apps. If you all can't get this mess fixed then I'll be dumping Zello and moving to something else, 'cause this version just don't cut it. Shame, this was a great app.

This is a great app because it’s like a phone call but it’s not. It’s great to have a conversation without making a call. When there is no signal the app doesn’t work which is the only bad thing if you want to use it in an emergency (like getting lost during a hike or driving where there is no signal/service). But besides that, this is a really good app. Also, the feature in which you can pick if you’re messages are saved or deleted every few days is just perfect. At the same time, I love the fact that messages auto play when you’re not on the app because like I said in an emergency it becomes very useful. By the way, even if it’s not an emergency I like the fact the messages auto play and that you can adjust the settings to your personal preferences. Again, the only thing I would change is the fact that you can’t send voice messages when you’re phone doesn’t have wifi, service, or signal. Therefore, I give it 4 out 5 stars. But overall its a great app, I recommend it.

This app is amazing. In a way it's a thousand times better than an actual walkie talkie because your range is limited only by your cell phone connection. For productions it's great because you can create different groups for different departments. You can also send media over a transmission if you need to show someone a photo. Say you send an intern or a props person to the store to grab an item and when they get there they have a question. To gain your approval, they can radio you and send you a photo of the item they are about to purchase. You can't do that with a regular radio. The app runs in the background and can work with headsets or headphones if you are on a silent production. It may not look as cool as a real production radio but it's better in a lot of ways. And it's much better than just calling with a regular cell phone or using text messaging because you just can just press a button and immediately transmit to any group or individual you want. This is a GREAT APP!

Well, I have used this app for a while. Possibly more than six months. And if that experience, I would say that it is an excellent voice chat application. However, there are some issues. As far as accessibility, is completely accessible to those who are visually impaired, however the issue is that in the iOS version, because quality is very good. Well, I should say it could be better. However this is probably done because they want to make sure that it is compatible with mobile networks. This, it's probably not much of a concern. Because at least here in the US, and other world countries, LTE networks are becoming more standard. Because of this, we have more bandwidth use. Also, I question whether there's problems using it on in 3G network. The codec that he uses is in fact adaptable. That is it just means that the Kodak will adapt to various network conditions. So I wish that they would fix this problem. I have not personally use the app on a PC, however I have heard it. It does very well.

This app is great for business or organization solutions. You need a fast easy way to communicate with a group? You can pair this app with physical PTT buttons that are available no or both android and iOS. You already have a walkie-talkie radio system? No problem! Zello goes above and beyond to bridge the communication gap between using smartphone app and PTT walkie-talkie systems by offering a gateway solution with their partner.
I’ve been using this app to set up a way of communicating with people in my family business. My dad, mom, sister and I, all are in a channel with the employees at our supermarket.
It works magnificently.
The only thing I hope for soon is they update the app to support newer OS features. Like in iOS 16 the support for using focus modes, and adding lock screen widgets for fast and easy access to respond to messages for those of us that don’t have the PTT accessories. And whatever other important integrations of features would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Zello team!

This app is very good, it's probably the best one around. There is an issue however. I tried to request somebody and that person that I sent the request to was not connected to Internet. So when I try to request, the request never went through because the person was not connected to Internet. When they did connect to Internet, the request still didn't go through. Please fix this in the next update. And do you know why you haven't gotten any five star ratings yet? Because you have issues with CarPlay, and other issues, and the issue that I just complained about. This bug should be fixed, because this will happen to everybody that tries to get a request without Internet. It will never go through. I try closing the app and then opening it again two times. It still didn't go. This app is highly recommended despite this. It's a lot like the old-school Nextel! You can get people just about anywhere, and at any time. And I like the feature that you can switch to standby when you don't want to receive messages. I rated this five stars because it is a great app. It's personally, the best one that I have ever found in the App Store.

Please change when someone leaves you a walkie talkie message and how you view it.

Now you have to go to the little blue dot to listen. It would be great if you could have a message that stays on the home screen should you miss the original message and then you just press it to listen while it is displayed on the home screen. HeyTell is an app that has this as a feature. I have turned on a lot of people to this app but all don’t like how you have to go to the blue dot to listen. Again if you miss the walkie talkie message it should be in the home screen and then just hit the message to listen...much easier...please change this and this would make it great.

Update...so now you can’t can send a walkie talkie message and it stays on the screen but fir how long? Please update app so it stays on your phone screen until you listen to it. Nobody knows once it goes to the blue dot to listen to message. Again The HeyTell app leaves it on your phone screen until you listen to the message. Change that and this app will be excellent. Sometimes a leave a walkie talkie message and after so long the person never gets the message because they can’t see it.

I downloaded the app yesterday as recommended by my friend and fellow storm spotter. He uses it on his Android phone constantly and has no problems with it.

Yesterday, in the midst of a very severe weather outbreak, we were going to use the app to communicate between cars (you know, social distancing) since it was easier than trying to make a phone call. (I don’t have Bluetooth.) We did a quick test and it worked after he created a channel for just us.

I had my iPhone on and fully charged throughout the entire day. He tried to voice message me, but I never received it. So, we met up in a parking lot for another test. At first we thought it was because I didn’t have the app open. Unfortunately we couldn’t test the theory because severe storms were bearing down on us and we had to scramble to get going.

He tried to voice message me again, and again nothing happened even with the app open and running. I had no other apps running in the background either and all app notifications were turned on.

We are stumped as to why it works perfectly on his Android while not working at all on my iPhone XS Max. Any suggestions on what to do are greatly appreciated.

I was there during Nextel's inception. I remember 3:1, and then going 6: 1 compression for dispatch. Although Zello uses voice over IP, Nextel used an actual time slot on a T1 connection. I remember merging with sprint in 2005, and they (sprint) tried to come up with a PTT dispatch. It too was voice over IP. It's latency was not as bad as Zello, but never matched, nor came close to NEXTEL's dispatch PTT. I have seen Zello' latency pretty high (1124ms), and didn't think anything of it. It's free!

I didn't realize how well we had it, until it was gone... meaning we shut down the NEXTEL network across the nation in 2013. What took 13 years to build from the ground up, took sprint only 13 hours to shut down completely. Sad.

Just this morning, I could hear my brother talking to his coworkers on Zello. I am not in their group, and my Zello application was turned off, and I was logged out of Zello. This should not have happened. I should never have heard the conversation my brother was having with his coworkers. I was at home, but could have been anywhere, and had i been on a special assignment, this would have compromised my position. Sad.

I have since removed zello as of 30 minutes ago.

Compleatly steering away from voiceover
This was the go too app when blind users wanted a app to chat that was fully accessible all the way threw
Now the voiceover users can barely use to do anything
1 we can’t add people to our contacts because there is no add button when we click on any 1’s profile
Same with the channels we can’t add any Channel because there’s no add button when we Serch for them so the only way to get in to them is being invited

2 we can’t send any 1 in our contacts a alert because there’s no send button or anything for us to press and send and to top it off there’s no way to back out of it either so we have to close the app and then open it again to try to do anything else
3 there’s no way to cancel or to back out or save or update our profile so if we tap on profile for anything again we have to close the app and then open it again to do anything else
Also can’t update our about or our name because when we tap on 1 it just jump to something else or doesn’t open the text field so we can change our name or our about info

Same with options no back, save, done or update button so if we want to change any settings when we’ve made changes we 1 more time have to close the app and open it get to anything else
Please fix and make accessible for us blind voiceover users

First off. I’m not one to write reviews. I tend to get so comfortable in something just working that I’ve come to just expect it and think nothing more of it. However Zello deserves a special recognition in my opinion. The reason for that is simple. There is no other app that exists that has made an effort to be as inclusive as Zello has.

Zello has gone light years above and beyond any other company in ensuring they can allow you to stay in touch with friends and family. This app runs on iOS, Android and even phones that are so basic you would wonder how it was even possible.

I have a iPhone SE 2016 and it runs great! I even have a crappy basic dumb phone that runs android. No touchscreen, no frills, no cameras. Not even an AppStore and zello runs perfectly on that as well.

Case in point, in a world where developers take for granted that you just have an awesome phone and code their apps accordingly, zello actively goes out of its way to ensure that any phone that is capable of at least running Android; even if it has no touchscreen or app manager etc... zello’s got you covered. This is critical when many parts of the world don’t have the luxuries that we take for granted and because of this, I wanted to make it a point to give credit where credit is due.

If you are looking for a great way to stay in touch and have a truly enjoyable Walkie-talkie experience. Look no further. You’ll find it right here!

Zello is Awesome it works so great when other messaging apps, even Text•Messaging thru My Phone messes up, and Phone Calls are dropped, before finding out about Zello I used Viber, Hangouts, Kik, etc., etc.,had some type issue with them but Zello is Awesome I don't experience issues like did w/dropped calls & issues w/ message's like did with them...
Canads
Once in awhile there's an issue with internet not connecting with Zello but don't think it has any thing to do with Zello necessarily!

If your on the fence about rather to try Zello or not I Highly Recommend you give Zello a try it's Amazing
I have no issues talking to ppl all over the world friends I've made and met online,
Me in California they
(Friends in The UK, Iraq, Afghanistan, Virginia, New•York, North•Carolina, Canada,
Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas,
ppl also in California as I am, etc,..)

[No Problem, So Try-iT!]
Betcha Youl love Zello too❤️

It has really Cool features
Can do Group I have 18 people in my Group we can all be in on conversations together listening in
Or chose one on one with who ever you want and or send Text•Msgs,
Send Pictures,
can choose to put different Modes your:
On Stand-By, Available, Busy (or)
Off/Mute...

LK I rarely do Reviews or find something to rave about to want to do reviews on but
"ZELLO"
I have to tell You about so
Give Zello a try {{•_•}}!
Promise you won't regret it chances are if anything your gonna Love It as MyFriends, Family, Fiancé and confidantes and I do...

{{{"I" HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!}}}

Sincerely, Angel

DO NOT USE THIS APP FOR BUSINESS.

Use this for work on a 6th gen iPod touch. Disconnects all the time even after 3.12 update. Also transmissions are garbled half the time and indecipherable. Can be responding to a call while holding button down and all of a sudden app stops transmitting your call like you let go of button. Can also get a call, try to respond, and then have Zello completely disconnect. Bluetooth headset and push to talk button (Coda Click) seem to disconnect randomly as well.

All in all this app is a good idea but poorly executed. Maybe it's better on a device with a cellular data connection? I'd assume that only fixes the network connection issues though.

UPDATE: I've had to switch over to using this app on my personal cell phone now with a data connection to get any sort of reliability from this app. At this point I'm 100% certain it should not be used in professional/commercial environments. Communication in my line of work is too important to base off some shoddy app instead of purpose built radios. Maybe this app is great to call your kids for dinner, but for my use it's 1 star all the way.

Update 2: Still a garbage app. It now BURNS through my battery life like a wild fire. People who rate this higher are using it for minimal conversation. It also completely highjacks the volume controls on the phone. It also reduces the audio quality of music you play. Once again I repeat this app should not be used in a professional environment where constant communication is important. I would say it's my employers fault for picking this app to use but Zello markets a "@work" version which is supposed to be pro.

Update 3: You guessed it, still trash. Now it has some hang up with connected Bluetooth headsets where it just beeps as you’re getting an incoming call but it never actually goes through.

I’m using a brand new iPhone XS Max , My wife has the same kind of phone and I encounter the same problems on her phone and mine , so I know it’s not a unique problem with my phone . There is no option to turn on/off background app refresh. Once your iPhone auto-locks Zello disconnects. So you need to keep your phone unlocked at all times in order to use Zello. But then when I close Zello (app is no longer running) suddenly a few hours later incoming messages will begin playing through the speakerphone all on its own even with screen locked and phone is not in use , even though Zello is not running and is completely closed , makes zero sense . Zello focuses on android phones and ignores iPhone users problems, if you have an Android you will be happy, but if you have an iPhone you should look elsewhere for a similar app. These issues I mentioned are only a couple of the many many other problems I constantly have on Zello. Perhaps the worst issue which I’ve had for over 2 years and they still haven’t fixed is incoming messages will drop the audio after 2-4 seconds and the rest of the incoming message shows they are talking but you hear nothing, then if you go to history to relay what they said the 30+ second long message only replays the 2-4 seconds that you heard. It’s not an issue with internet connectivity becuase I used WiFi and cellular data, and it happens on other people iPhones as well. The only reason I don’t stop using Zello is because my father has a CB radio channel that I try to support. But it’s very aggravating to wake up in the middle of the night to people talking through my phone even tho the app is not even running , it’s very suspicious as to how an app can run even though it’s completely closed. Please consider supporting us iPhone users and give us a background refresh option and stop allowing Zello to mysterious operate while closed.

I have to use this app for work, I’m a security guard and the company has the dispatcher on one end while us guards are on the other.

Well a few nights ago the facility I was working had an attempted break in, the specifics aren’t relevant, but I used this app to communicate what was going on. In my case, having Solid communication is the difference between life and death.

Well, there’s 2 thing that really sticks in my side about this app.

#1. When the nerves are up and the situation is tense, the talk button times out if it is pressed more than twice within a certain amount of time. Rendering the button USELESS. I was hitting the talk button and since it was raining the water made my phone think I was tapping the button instead of holding it. My bad, but the problem was that even after drying it off, I was locked out when it wouldn’t just forget the previous tap as a mistake and instead sent those tap taps as a message. Literally half a second isn’t a realistic radio comm attempt. It’s a mistake. So I wish the app would recognize that, so I can have a little grace period before it shows the message saying something like”you have tried this too many times” blah blah blah. Fix this. The all needs to outsmart that.

And #2. When my dispatcher is taking his time talking super slow, there needs to be a way to shut him up so that I can come over the air and say something. Becuase by the time he stops sleep talking, the situation in front of me has evolved and he needs to stop talking about something that isn’t important anymore.

For instance, I told him somebody is trying to get thru the gate, and he’s on there like, “yeah welll just make sure it’s not a delivery cuz lately and especially this time of year there have been some people delivering and honestly I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Blah blah blah “”…

I’m sitting there ready to fire my weapon as the chain is snapped off with bolt cutters, and he’s assuming it’s something else and wasting valuable air time. If I could just halt him in his track (the dispatcher) I could save a ton of time snd frustration. I threw my phone away from me so his voice wasn’t audible. He literally talked so slow that it was becoming a safety issue.

UPDATE: Be careful entering the wrong password when you log in “too many times,” because you get logged out and locked. Even if you reset your password it still locks you out. It says that too many failed attempts, to wait fir a while. I’ve tried waiting days, and it still won’t let me log in. When I open the app it automatically tries to log in with the old password, so the system see’s it as another failed attempt. I am not going to bother contacting support, as I am sure I am not the first person this has happened to. If they have failed to do their jobs and fix the problem, then after 10-12 years if using Zello it’s time for me to say good bye and delete the app. / This prior review still true today: Zello needs to put out an Apple Watch app. Some competitors have. I’ve been using Zellow for about eleven years now. I even had the Plus version until they stooped supporting it. I have always liked it and it has been great. I have recommended the app to a lot of people (may be well over 100 people) and several businesses. Now that I am a Patrol Officer, I’ve become very concerned about privacy. Most people take their privacy for granted simply because they have no idea how the lack of it affects their lives. They actually think that it doesn’t affect them. WRONG! Even though I’ve always liked Zello, I hardly ever use it anymore. To me it lacks the privacy needed in an app of this type. Every app, but in particular any app used to communicate with others in which you accidentally or purposely can say something that you do not want heard by those you don’t want, should have a lot of privacy settings and features to keep people’s conversation safe. There are two major problems with Zello. It does not provide encryption of any kind. It also saves your conversation history in each account for people to replay later as often as they wish. For example, recently I was replaying conversations I had with my ex boyfriend. Conversations we had when we were just friends and things were moving into a more romantic direction. I’m talking about conversations that took place back in 2017. Yes, those conversations are still saved in Zello servers. I heard it all, the flirting, the plans we talked about, the funny, the sad, etc. You have to be extremely careful about what you say while using apps that save what you say. If the app does not provide encryption, and/or saves your voice communications it can one day come back and bite you in the rear. Just like text messages are increasingly being used in courts and HR offices all across the country to prosecute, sue, or fire people. Perhaps an ex girlfriend or boyfriend using text messages, recorded voice conversation, pictures, and so on to trash the other person. A close friend that betrays you or a co-worker trying to win points with the boss. Even things you say jokingly can sound incriminating or mean when isolated from what was said before and after. I think that the first step Zello needs to do to move in the right direction is to give people the ability to turn off the history. When off, your voice messages to others and from others to you would NOT be recorded and saved anywhere. NOT in your phone and NO in theirs. Just like in a real transceiver (walkie talkie). The second step would be encrypting all conversations for complete privacy, with no back doors to allow the government or others to peek in. Please learn to take your privacy seriously. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can not put him back in. And now days your privacy is a highly valuable commodity.

In the last update 4days ago, it’s been a very painful experience.
1. When screen turns off it cuts the volume off and have to exit and re-enter the room to hear folks talking in the room.

Okay so me and my sister got these with the hurricanes coming in for extra safety, after reading the settings and trying to dig through youtube tutorials on how to use the app it totally didn’t work, all that worked was the texting :(

This latest version cases the following prompt to pop up several times when I am playing music thru the iTunes app:

“Turn on Bluetooth to Allow “Zello to Connect to Accessories. Settings / OK”

iPhone 7+
IOS 12.3.1
Zello Version 4.59

Days after we installed this app my husband and I have received sexually related texts and calls from numbers we do not know, at least 10 a day. My husband installed using android and I using Apple. Boils down to that they sell your number to spammers.

My business partner and I had been using this app for years. Now, guess it’s the latest update, messages are delayed. Sometimes up to two hours. Yesterday, I had to track him down. As we are talking face to face, my messages are announced on his phone.

The app is great, minus not being able to search for channels.

The big issue I have, is the ptt on the Lock Screen is not working. I recently upgraded to the 14 pro max, and have not had the Lock Screen option since. Running 16.4, fully updated, can’t get it to work.

This app used to work great on an iPhone and now is crap. We use it for work and if my screen goes to lock screen I do not get messages. I have done everything I know if to fix the issue in the settings and nothing is working. If you have an Android he talk button constantly gets stuck

Trying to make this app work for me. I don’t see a way to maintain my status of “busy” to prevent it from starting messages as they come in- even when the phone volume is all the way down/off. I have to turn my phone off completely or delete the app to get it to stop. So frustrating. Getting it to maintain any status is impossible.

I use Zello daily for work and it has been nothing but awful. Never connected, always missing transmissions, and completely drains a full iPhone battery in 6 hours, just running in the background. I would love to never have to use the app again, unfortunately our large corporation has over 500 people using it, so they'll never change.

I’ve been using zello for over a year now and I’ve had nothing but constant bugs and problems with messages and alerts. Currently I do not receive any alerts whatsoever if my zello app is closed even though my settings say to always receive alerts. No messages are saved in history either when app is closed so I am constantly missing traffic.

I tried joining a weather channel because of an impending hurricane. It tells me to verify my email address on the Zello.com website. I do that and I don’t get a verification code in my email. It tells me to verify my phone number I go through the process and it tells me Failed to verify phone number. Failed to verify phone. Fix your app please!

I have had Zello for almost a year with no problem until...about a week ago. I started getting prompts every 5 minutes for me to open my Bluetooth to Zello. I shut down all prompts, notifications, etc and it still kept asking. I gave up and finally deleted today. Fix that bug and I will be back but coding in over rides like that is not trustworthy.

If I could give this app zero stars I would this is just a psa if you are thinking of downloading this app beware of the hackers that send voice messages and write to you out of no where they don’t stop and they take no for an answer it’s truly disgusting also the app notes it’s for kids ages 12 and up this is NOT a safe app just something to think about it’s happened to me a couple times and to other people I know of.

Download only if you like spam. This app insists that you supply an email address when installing. Within hours of installing the app I started receiving spam, lots of it. Normally I get one or two spams a week. Within 48hours of installing this app I received over 60! Most all of a sexual nature. Can’t be a coincidence. The app works ok, but there are others that work as well and might not have all the explicit baggage.

Used to Luv the app but Zello recently starting telling me, “Turn On Bluetooth to allow Zello to connect to accessories”. It does this EVERY time I unlock my phone. I’ve tried shutting off notifications and turning Bluetooth on/off but it keeps telling me that! It only started doing this after the last upgrade. Please FIX this or I’m going to be forced to delete it. I’d love to modify this review after its please fixed! Thank you.

Last update on the iPhone was totally screwed up when you try to access the history and when you scrolling up to the message that you didn’t hear it it’s scrolling by itself to the bottom and nothing you can do even use if you disconnect from the Internet , then only you can listen to history like an hour or couple hours before.Nothing like that happens on the android version so it’s probably developer is screwed up and nobody cares about.Has been using the Zillow last five years and it’s the worst version they have right now on the iPhone.

I downloaded this because it had better reviews than voxer. I have no idea why this has such good reviews. The design is sure adequate at best because it's not very intuitive. My biggest beef is that there's this problem when somebody you're talking to doesn't have great service, the so will only send part of a voice message. And that's it! I contacted support and they said there's nothing more you can do. If they actually want you to hear what they said they have to take their voice message and serve it to you in an email or text. Wouldn't be so bad if it were a rare occurrence but it happened regularly.

I tried reaching out for support but haven’t received any follow-up from anyone at Zello yet. It was working great for my taxi company for almost a full month, especially now during this pandemic as we’re all trying to practice social distancing, but now I’m only able to connect with drivers who have Android and not iOS. My status keeps showing up as on “standby” or “offline” even when I’m connected and have the app open. I’m unable to receive any messages from anyone. It’s a shame. I even tried creating a new account but still having the same issue. Would really appreciate some feedback on this issue so we can continue using this app!