Xoundly turns the two phones and earbuds you already own into a motorcycle intercom. No hardware to buy or mount, and your music lowers itself when either of you speaks.
Free while in beta · No account · Works in Safari and Chrome
Wind, helmet, engine. You shout, she shouts back, and you still miss the turn.
Two phones, two pairs of earbuds, about a minute to link.
Sometimes you should. Here is the honest split.
Xoundly fits
An intercom fits
Not sure which one you are? A test ride is free, and one ride will tell you.
Nobody touches a phone once you are moving. This is the whole routine.
Works today in your browser
All of it, as long as Xoundly stays on screen. One limit: an iPhone browser keeps YouTube at one level, so there the music does not dip.
Coming with the app
The rider keeps Waze or Google Maps in front, locks the screen or pockets the phone, and you keep talking. It also lowers your own music app.
A small song plays in your browser. Hold Talk and listen to what Xoundly does to it on a ride.
Turn the music on, then hold Talk.
The same settings the app gives you.
When either of you speaks, the song dips. When you stop, it comes back. Nobody touches a volume button.
Any Bluetooth earbuds that fit under your helmet. No intercom unit to buy, mount or charge.
The rider's mic stays on. Nothing to press while moving.
Lose signal in a tunnel and it links up again without anyone touching a phone.
No sign up. Your voices pass through and are never recorded or stored.
Paste a YouTube link or a playlist. Each phone plays it, kept in step within a fraction of a second.
Mic closed means full quality sound. Tap Talk and it opens, then closes after you go quiet.
One sings, one listens, then swap. Echo on the singer's voice, timing you can tune.
Real screens from the app. Tap a step to see it.Swipe sideways to see each one.
Yes, mobile data on both phones. Voice uses very little. YouTube is video, so a two hour ride with music is roughly 300 to 500 MB per phone. A version that links two phones directly, with no signal at all, is planned for the app.
Spotify does not let a web page or a small app play its music on phones. YouTube does, as long as the video stays visible, which is why the pillion's phone shows it. Some official music videos refuse to play outside YouTube. Lyric and karaoke uploads almost always work.
In the browser, an iPhone ignores volume commands from web pages, so YouTube stays at one level there while everything else works. On Android and on a computer it lowers. The app fixes this by lowering your own music app through the phone itself.
Take turns. Bluetooth adds about a third of a second of delay, so two people singing at the same moment will always hear each other late. One singer at a time sounds right.
That depends on your earbuds and your helmet. Wind is the enemy. Xoundly takes wind and engine noise out of your voice before it is sent, which helps, but it cannot rescue a mic that is sitting in the full blast. Try a short ride first. If the mic struggles above 50 or 60 km/h, a helmet headset with a boom mic behind the chin bar is the fix, and Xoundly works with those too.
Hands-free talk over Bluetooth is allowed under the Anti-Distracted Driving Act. Touching or reading your phone while moving is not. Set up while parked, keep transparency mode on so you still hear the road, and let the pillion handle the screen.
The app is being built now, Android first and iPhone after. It keeps your conversation alive behind Waze and on a locked screen. Leave your email and you will be in the first test group.
Tell us what worked and what did not. No account needed.
Open Xoundly on both phones and type the code. You will be talking in about a minute.
Try it with your passengerFree while in beta · No account · Works in Safari and Chrome
The directory where Filipino makers launch. An upvote there puts Xoundly in front of more riders.