Hi everyone, I am Fosya, I am 21. The thought of making something people would genuinely like has been with me for a long time. I had tried to build a place for people to talk before, more than once, and none of those attempts grew into anything. Two or three years went by, I got tired of the ping, and I sat down to write a program so I could sit with my friends and talk.
Then came the advice: optimise this, make that look better. I was on fire with the idea, the interface, the whole build of it, I enjoyed it, so I kept going. A program for my own circle turned into Voxa: your own server with text and voice channels, direct messages and calls, screen sharing, camera. There’s an app for Windows and Android, and on iPhone Voxa opens in the browser. Talking on it is free. I built all of it myself, from the first line of code to the last button.
The project grew fast, and it got big enough that I don’t always manage to cover every side of it at once. So I’ll say it straight, before you install anything: the Android app has bugs, and the web version for iPhone has them too. Once in a while the direct connection doesn’t come up, and the voice goes through the server instead. If you want to add to that list, go ahead: I won’t take offence.
I released the beta knowing it probably wouldn’t impress anyone at first glance. Keeping it in a drawer made no sense: a program for talking is only ever tested by talking. And the thing it was all started for already worked in it: the voice goes straight from one computer to another, and the server only introduces you to each other. First my friends came. Then their friends, and after them people I wouldn’t know by sight. Some dropped in for an evening and stayed. The evenings in the channels stopped being only mine, and that’s when the feedback started.
There was praise, and it kept me going. There was hate, sometimes deserved: reading it is no joy, but plenty of things got fixed precisely because of it.
There were moments when I wanted to drop it all and leave things as they were: competing looks pointless from the outside, and a proper release needs time and money. I keep going for the same reason I started. I want people to enjoy it: to come in, turn on the mic and talk with the lowest possible ping, without a VPN. It’s just that now it isn’t only about my own evenings.
Complaints, wishes, advice and questions: write to support, from the app or here on the site, in settings. No need to hold back. There is only me there too) I’ll do my best to reply, take things into account, fix bugs and build what you suggest.