Face Talk for iPad

Have you ever wanted to put your words in someone else’s mouth? Well, there’s an app for that.

The premise of Face Talk is simple: take a photo, record your voice, and the app will create a movie with a charmingly awkward moving mouth. To give you an idea of what the movie looks like, here is one from the developers:

I recently saw this app in use during a high school class presentation. In it, two students re-enacted a conversation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. To do so, they pieced together several Face Talk clips into a single movie. The movie would cut back and forth between historical talking photos that featured the voices of the two students.

It was funny. It was engaging. The class laughed and learned together.

Here is a (younger and quite charming) student example featuring the Gettysburg Address:

How it Works:

To get started, either find or take a picture on your iPad. The Camera icon (shown below) allows you to take a photo directly from your device. Alternatively, the Polaroid icon allows you to browse your camera roll or photo stream. Next, line up the mouth and chin markers, and you’re off. When you hit the record button, Face Talk uses the internal microphone to record your voice.

Once you have created your video, you can watch it immediately or save it to your camera roll. You can also share it via email, Facebook and Twitter.

It’s worth noting that the free version of the app is limited to 10 second videos– and displays ads. If you want to record longer projects without distractions, the full version costs $.99.

Additionally, while the app doesn’t allow for audio or video editing, it is easy to import your movie clips to an iMovie project. There you can string together several clips for a larger movie.

Takeaways: 

Is it hokey? Sure. Does it encourage student voice? Yes. Does it engage students and their peers? Absolutely. This one has a place in the classroom.

Cost: Free/ $.99 for full version

Platforms:  iPad

iTunes Rating (out of 5 stars): 4 1/2