Bubbly 2.0: An Instagram for Voice Messages?

It was just two weeks ago Bubble Motion, the Singapore-based company which makes the popular Bubbly app, raised $5 million in funding from JAFCO Asia. And today we’re pleased to see a major update pushed for its iOS app, bringing some new features to the service which has come to be known as ‘Twitter for voice.’

The most notable of the new features is the added capability to apply filters to your voice messages, which will change the sound depending on which of the filters you choose. In total there are twelve, including Noise Reducer, Slow Mo, Helium, and Echo Chamber. Bubble Motion’s CEO Tom Clayton explains:

With Bubbly now being used around the world, we wanted to add a touch of personalization that anyone can appreciate. […] The Bubbly voice filters give users more options for self-expression – not to mention, it’s a lot of fun.

I can see the potential for fun, although I’m not sure it’s something that I would personally use regularly — and I’m not quite sold on their ‘Instagram for Voice’ comparison. If Bubbly is Twitter for voice, then this function is sort of analogous to adding new text filters (aka ‘fonts’) to Twitter. But of course all users are different, and for some people, I’m sure these new voice filters will be right up their alley.

Bubbly’s other new features will excite many users in Korea, Thailand, and Russia, as the service now gets language localization for those regions.

There’s also the ability to connect Bubbly to your other social networks, with single sign-on for Facebook and Twitter, and Timeline integration for the service so that you can see Bubbly posts there. This should help Bubbly find new audiences as Bubbly audio messages are passed around on the platforms we already use.

It’s good to see Bubbly continue to grow, with more than 19 million members (many of them premium users) already under its umbrella. When we spoke to Tom Clayton back in June he noted that the company was almost profitable, and had tons of cash in reserve.