Ray Ozzie's startup Talko integrates with Slack, offers team calling on web and iOS, coming to Android soon
Talko + Slack — Team calling in Slack channels, for mobile & web. Recorded for replay of important moments. — Shortly after our launch we heard from several teams who were using both Slack and Talko daily. Tweets: @rozzie Tweets: Ray Ozzie / @rozzie : Talko+Slack integration is now available, delivering WebRTC async+LIVE VoIP to Slack teams. Web+iOS w/Android soon! http://medium.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
In August 2015, Ray Ozzie's Talko brought WebRTC-based live and recorded team calling directly into Slack channels, betting that voice belonged inside the chat stream rather than in a separate app. The bet was validated quickly from two directions: within months Microsoft bought Talko to fold its technology into Skype, and Skype itself launched a Slack integration letting teams start calls from Slack.
The integration also marked the start of Slack's own move into voice — the company graduated calling from third-party plugins to a native feature across desktop and mobile, and years later shipped dedicated audio products like push-to-talk and Huddles.
First-order effects
- Teams running both Slack and Talko daily can now start live or asynchronous recorded calls from within a channel on web and iOS, keeping the call transcript attached to the conversation instead of siloed in a dialer app.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft answered by acquiring Talko outright just months after launch, absorbing its tech into Skype — and Skype followed with its own Slack integration in preview, conceding that Slack was where teams wanted to originate calls.
Third-order effects
- Slack internalized the lesson: it shipped generally available calls on desktop and mobile in 2016, then built native audio-first products like Huddles, turning what started as an integration into core platform surface — a path where third-party add-ons either get acquired or get rebuilt as features.
The trend: Voice is being collapsed into team-chat platforms — first via startups' integrations like Talko's, then through acquirers and the chat vendors themselves building calling natively.