I don't think I remember the last time I used a walkie-talkie, and with the introduction of smartphones, I'm not sure when I'll ever need one.

However, that doesn't make them useless by any means. If you want to make your own pair of walkie-talkies using an ESP32, this project may just be what you're looking for, and best of all, it manages to avoid the need for radio licensing using a smart trick.

These ESP32 walkie-talkies use Wi-Fi to talk to one another

And you can make your own

As spotted by Hackster.io, these walkie-talkies were the idea of the aptly named Tech Talkies over on YouTube. They use the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 Sense board and a MAX98357A I2S amplifier, paired with a small speaker, to drive the ESP32. Usually, walkie-talkies use radio frequencies and thus require a license to make, but since these use Wi-Fi, you don't need one.

You can see how the walkie-talkies work in the video above. As it turns out, those antennae are pretty essential for general use; while the built-in ones tend to lose connection when you separate the units by a few rooms, the external antennae allow the units to maintain a connection up to 200 meters outdoors.

Here are some choice features that come with this project:

• Push-to-talk (PTT) — hold a button to transmit, release to listen
• ESP-NOW audio streaming — direct device-to-device, no access point required
• Onboard PDM microphone — uses the XIAO ESP32S3 Sense's built-in mic, no external mic wiring
• Thread-safe audio ring buffer — incoming audio is buffered and played back from the main loop, avoiding I2S corruption from the WiFi callback thread
• Automatic peer identity — flash the same firmware on both boards; each board detects its own MAC address at boot and configures itself as Device 1 or Device 2

If you'd like to make these walkie-talkies yourself, you can find everything you need to get started over on its GitHub page.