TeleSocial Opens API, Allows You To Add Voice Chat To Almost Anything

Smack talk, that mainstay of online gaming since the invention of… well… the online game, is a fine art. To know when to call someone’s mother something nasty or to question your opponents sexual prowess is of paramount importance in almost any situation. That’s why Telesocial wants you to use their API to add voice chat to almost any program you can imagine, from office apps to games.

Telesocial is an angel-funded start-up dedicated to voice. They initially worked at adding voice to social networks – including Facebook – and have now opened up their work to programmers. Their system allows one-click calling between app users (you could yell at your opponent in Carcassonne, for example) and the creation of in-app conference rooms for multiple users.

You can use nearly any language to create what they call a TalkSpace and they have documentation for PHP, Objective-C, and command-line based instantiation.

Bill Waytena and Eric Stone founded the site in 2008 and they have always focused on voice in the social setting.

“The Telesocial API allows developers to add innovative voice functionalities to their games and applications,” wrote Eric Stone in a release. “Our API translates user IDs into phone numbers, creating a phone-numberless voice service that connects people anytime, anywhere on their favorite device, the mobile phone.”

The service supports multiple authentication systems and turns social IDs into “phone numbers” that are uniquely addressable by your apps. The API works with Facebook, Twitter, Android, and iOS.

Telesocial notes that the app is good for in-game chats (“Interested in calling the person who just watered your crops in that farming game?”) and call screening (“Want to screen your date with a phone call before going out with him or her – but not give out your number?”) and it supports anonymous mobile-to-mobile calling. It would also be perfect for a sort of illicit, sultry voice-only Chatroulette for lonely writers (just putting that out there, devs, no rush.)

The API is available now.

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