Voxer’s founders were Tom Katis and Matt Ranney. Katis was a communications sergeant with the Special Forces who had the privilege of serving in armed forces in Afghanistan. While in his tour of duty, he had faced difficulties in communicating with the soldiers in the field. This inspired the creation of Voxer, which Katis pursued after his tour of duty in 2007.
When interviewed, Katis said an ambush occurred in Afghanistan one day. As the communications sergeant, he was providing the coordinates to reinforcements and the medical team while the firefight was ongoing. He would have wanted to talk to all the ground personnel simultaneously, but their walkie talkies at that time did not have the needed functions.
The Voxer Walkie Talkie was launched in May 2011 on iOS. Its “push-to-talk” service was possible through the live streaming voice service technologies and patents that Voxer embedded on the free app. The app carries other features that are not available on typical walkie talkies such as text messaging photo management.