It’s that time of year, lights everywhere, trees decorated with beautiful lights and ornaments, and of course, Christmas Carols. Now, the VoiceMe Christmas Carol app gives the amateur caroler a chance to share their musical greetings with friends and family via their iPhone.
Overview
VoiceMe Christmas Carol for the iPhone allows users to make recordings of classic Christmas songs. The app plays the music and supplies the lyrics of popular classic carols, and records your voice as you sing along. You then have the option to share the musical masterpiece via email or text message.
The app includes these carols:
- Jingle Bells
- Joy to the World
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Deck the Halls
- Silent Night
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- The First Noel
- Auld Lang Syne
Or, you can play your own music to sing along to. (The app records your voice and the music that’s playing via the iPhone’s built-in microphone, so it’s easy to play your own music, it doesn’t even need to be on your device.)
Once you’ve recorded your carol, you can send it to a list of “Favorites” made up of email or text addresses you’ve selected from your iPhone’s contacts list.
I found the app easy and fun to use. I do wish the lyrics the app displays would scroll along as the song played, however it’s not a huge chore to give them a quick swipe with a finger to move to the next verse. And it’s likely that most of us already know most of the words to the included Christmas classics.
The recordings that VoiceMe Christmas Carol creates won’t fool anyone into thinking you recorded your carol in a professional recording studio, but the quality is sufficient for the task at hand, which is giving a friend or family member a quick smile during their busy day.
Sending the recordings was quite simple. Users can either set up a number of “favorites” from their contacts list, or simply begin typing to search all of their Contacts. The email or text message the app sends includes a handy attachment that can be immediately played on the recipients smartphone or tablet, or saved for later enjoyment.
Carols can also be saved to your device for later enjoyment, or to send to someone you forgot to include the first time.
Verdict
VoiceMe Christmas Carol offers a fun way to share your Christmas spirit with friends and family. While the result is a bit amateurish, that actually makes it just a little more fun. The app’s interface won’t win any design awards, and there will be times where you’ll be wondering, “what’s this button do?” But, it’s easy enough to use, and I don’t think most users will have any issues while using the app.
Anyone who enjoys singing Christmas Carols and want’s to share their talents, or lack thereof, with friends and family would be well advised to pay the 99 cent tariff for the app and have some holiday fun.
Rating: 3.5/5.0[rating:3.5]
Price: $0.99 – Available for iOS device in the App Store. [GET IT HERE]
Pros:
- Fun to use
- Great way to share Christmas carols with friends and family
- Easy to share the results
Cons:
- The interface could be more intuitive
- I wish the lyrics scrolled with the music
- Surely there are more public domain carols they could have included?
