Review on Enhanced Communication: Motorola Talkabout T800 Two-Way Radios - Reliable 2 Pack in Striking Black/Blue Design by Roberto Manzer

I ordered these radios specifically for the messaging and data functions and was dying to try them. The radios themselves feel pretty solid, with an easy-to-use menu system and a nice bright display. The sound quality is good. Pairing the iPhone with radios via the Motorola Talkabout app was easy and setting up the radio features via the app is very easy and intuitive. One of the most attractive features of the platform is the messaging system; However, the app isn't perfect, with some very confusing elements. For example, each user must create an account, and the account can contain a photo or avatar, as well as a nickname. However, when you add other users to a chat session, none of that information (profile photo, nickname, icon color, etc.) is sent to the other participants, even if they're connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network. When you add someone to a chat session, you still have to manually name each participant and take a new photo (if you want the face to represent each other user). So what's the point of creating your profile on the app and adding your photo? It doesn't seem to make any sense. Nothing is actually shared with other users. I tested the data and messaging capabilities in a downtown area with lots of tall buildings and successfully sent SMS between iPhones up to half a mile apart. Interestingly, some of the messages I sent back to the stationary base unit from the moving remote device were marked as undeliverable in the original phone app. But when I returned to the base station, I found that many of those messages had actually been received. Or messages I had to "resend" were received twice on the receiving end. This means messages got through more often than appeared during testing, but acknowledgment/handshake responses didn't come back to the remote phone. It is possible that the stationary device's output power is lower, which explains why the "response" [handshake] messages were unsuccessful, but further testing is needed to confirm this. Based on the age of the app and the relative rarity of updates & - - the last update was nine months ago - it looks like Motorola has abandoned that platform and perhaps not sold enough devices to merit further development of the app; That would be a shame because this is a really smart product that can become a really great product with just a few tweaks.