Voice is the most natural way to communicate. The design challenge for us was to not get in the way of the voice and make the experience of communicating with voice through a computer or phone a fast and easy user experience. The app needed to be a credible alternative to the current behavior of texting/SMS. Speed and brevity were our focus and our filter. We made design decisions based on whether or not it helped to communicate quickly and with immediacy.

Distance makes it hard to create company culture. The human factor is important and cannot be replicated with pixelated video chats or emails alone. With employees, advisors and investors spread globally we need a better way to communicate and collaborate than the means at our disposal. Texting and instant messaging are easy and fast, but lack nuance and emotion, and phone calls and video chat require time blocked out and coordination. Pling was born out of a real problem our company faced, which many others face as well.

We started with the recording element, the core of the app. We used a "push to talk" approach. This forces users to push and hold to record and once they let go the message stops recording and is immediately sent with a satisfying sound effect. This also forces brevity upon the user, which was another important challenge. Voice communication that is long and rambling is bad for the recipient. When voice is short and straight to the point it is much more effective.

10,000 downloads with 5,000 plings sent each day, and growing by 10% each week, just one month into its launch with a dozen companies using the Enterprise version. Most products take time to grow; we are focused on the growth of active users and the Enterprise version at this stage.