soundbites to personal photos to share to their other social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook).

Text-based communication has rapidly changed since the introduction of smartphones. While texting used to be just that – i.e., text only – one could not imagine communicating without Emojis, Bitmojis and gifs, all of which have become languages in and of themselves. As the voice becomes increasingly integrated into communication through smartphone digital voice assistants like Siri, smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa, and even Apple’s Animoji, Howlyr further integrates the intersection between technology and the voice into everyday text message conversations and social media posts, creating a new ability to convey tone and articulate ideas that words alone (and even images) cannot.