VoiceMessage++: Augmented voice recordings for mobile instant messaging

Abstract

Media (e.g. videos, images, and text) shared on social platforms such as Facebook and WeChat are often visually enriched through digital content (e.g. emojis, stickers, animal faces) increasing joy, personalization, and expressiveness. While voice messages (VMs) are experiencing a high frequent usage, they currently lack any form of digital augmentation. This work is the first to present and explore the concept of augmented VMs. Inspired by visual augmentations we designed and implemented an editor, allowing users to enhance VMs with background sounds, voice changers, and sound stickers. In a first evaluation (N = 15) we found that participants used augmentations frequently (2.73 per message on average) and rated augmented VMs to be expressive, personal and more fun than ordinary VMs. In a consecutive step, we analyzed the 45 augmented VMs recorded during the study and identified three distinct message types (decoration, composition and integrated) that inform about potential usage.