I have to say thanks to Andru Edwards “ from the excellent Gear Live site “ for his post on Friendfeed yesterday that lead me to discover SmackTalk!. I am so glad I did!

Here is just a little slice from the app ‘s App Store description:

No matter what you say SmackTalk! can say it back “ only SQUEAKIER.

Sounds very simple, maybe not even very interesting, right?  Read on for why it absolutely is though

What Does It Do & What Does It Do Well?

Back to a bit of App Store description for an Intro here:

SmackTalk! features an animated guinea pig, puppy, kitten, and chihuahua that repeat what you say in high-pitched squeaky voices *in real time* for hours of hilarious laughter.  Works in every language!

It probably still doesn ‘t have you hooked I imagine.  This is all the app does “ mimics everything you say in a speeded-up, high-pitched squeaky voice.  But it does it so, so well. I thought the app sounded promising when I saw Andru ‘s post, but it has way exceeded my hopes and expectations.

Right off the bat, SmackTalk! had my daughter laughing hysterically.  From the first thing she said to it, the repeated words being fired back at her were just funny as all get out.  To say the voices are squeaky and high-pitched doesn ‘t do them justice “ they are just hilarious and make for infectious laughter as soon as you hear them.   The animals move their heads and mouths a little as the mimic you, which adds to the effect.

One of the very best things about this app is that it picks up “ and mimics “ *everything* that you say, as well as all your laughter.  This got my daughter and I into a chain reaction fit of laughter sort of deal where she would say something, the animal would mimic it, she ‘d crack up hugely, the animal mimics her laugh in a ridiculously funny way, she cracks up even more, that laugh gets mimicked and sounds even funnier, and by then we ‘re both just about collapsing with laughter.  This happened over and over.  And has happened pretty much every time we open the app up.

As you ‘d imagine, this app is incredibly easy to use.  Just launch it and start talking, or making any funny sounds you want it to imitate.  It starts with the guinea pig character active by default, but you can just swipe to change to one of the other three animals.

Each of them has a slightly different sounding voice “ I think my favorite so far is the guinea pig, my daughter loves the cat best “ but honestly all of them are superb.

Another fun thing to do is to make your voice purposely deeper or higher as you squawk at it, and check out the great resulting mimicry from the app.

What ‘s Not So Good?

Nothing. Nada “ but I am glad to hear that there are some exciting new features being planned.  An upcoming update “ to Version 1.3 “ promises:

will let you customize SmackTalk! with your own greetings, insults, and triggered recordings.  You will be able to email the recording to yourself as audio files or ringtones

That sounds very good.  There ‘s also a note on the App Store page mentioning that future releases may include the ability to create your own characters from photos in your library.  That would be nice too.

Overall

SmackTalk! is a simple app that provides an enormous amount of simple pleasure.  I cannot think of any other app that has been such huge fun, or created such genuine joy, for my daughter.  She spent ages with it last night, and first thing this morning she was right back at it.  Oh, and I have been cracking up with her all the way along.

I honestly think this is the most ‘pure fun ‘ app I ‘ve ever seen on the iPhone “ and I know my little one would agree.  If you have young children, or spend time with the kids of close family members or through your job, or if you just like silly fun yourself, you really need to check this app out.

There ‘s a good demo video (though even this doesn ‘t do justice to just how hilarious the app is) HERE.

SmackTalk! is in the App Store now, priced at $1.99.

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