Milo Action Communicator Review: The Ideal Outdoor Walkie-Talkie

A lot of outdoor sports require shouting. Ever been rock climbing? A while ago, when I was leading the second pitch up a crag, I fumbled my hand around blindly, searching for my next hold, only to grip not rock but a snake — which was suddenly and violently in full attack mode.

I wanted to gently return it to its home, but then how was I going to be able to climb on by? How would my belayer pass through this same ledge with an angry serpent ready to strike? I didn’t have much time to weigh my options and instinctively chucked the rattler away—and unfortunately, at my friend at the other end of the rope. I yelled, “Snake!” just about the time it soared into his airspace. It scared the shit out of him as it landed at his feet, still writhing — and he rightly let loose with a Queens-laced flurry of invective, much of it rightly directed at me.

Had I been able to tell him directly what was happening, I might’ve spared him the shock of having a poisonous beast flung at his head.

And let’s face it: Outdoor sports can be dangerous. Ski guides use walkie-talkies for this very reason. And if you’re a surfer, getting warned about a hazard in the water, from a jellyfish to a shark, could definitely save your carcass. Ditto when you’re part of a big group ride and a car comes blazing up from behind, and you’d love to warn the folks at the front that they need to get to the shoulder STAT. Basically, if you “sport” in packs of two or more, being able to talk to each other could add a very useful and even life-saving tool.

Well, that device exists. It’s called the Milo Action Communicator, winner of a 2022 Red Dot Design award.

Courtesy

Milo Action Communicator

• $652.00 at okmilo.com

I’ll get into a few distinctions about how Milo works below, but if the first thought that sprang into your head while reading the above is, we already have that, it’s called a cell phone — here’s the yeah-but.

Sure, Skype lets you conference 50 people into a single call. Ever been on a video or audio call with even five people? Pretty quickly, everyone’s talking over each other, and you’ve got this awkward push-pull of shutting up, blurting, and giving up entirely. You’ve got a headache in five minutes and 25 minutes left to burn through that conference discussion. Imagine all of that speakerphone joy, but with your heart racing at workout intensity and with the potential wind tunnel blast of your buddy standing at the top of a peak about to drop into head-over powder. Background noise makes conversations on a cell phone nearly inscrutable. And don’t forget that where we like to recreate is often where cell reception is nonexistent — and when we hide our phones in safe, cushioned pockets or waterproof, buoyant cases.

Milo dispenses with all of that. It doesn’t need a cell signal, it cancels background noise and it sequences voices, so there’s zero overtalk. Or at least that’s the idea. How does it all shake out?

Milo

What’s Good About the Milo

It doesn’t require a cell signal

Milo isn’t the only player in this market. Cardo has Packtalk Outdoor, and Sena sells comms for both ski and bike helmets. All of these use what’s called a mesh network, and what matters here is less about the frequency (2.4GHz in Milo’s case) and more about the idea that mesh pairing creates unique identifiers for the units in your group.

Once paired, whether it’s repeaters on a home Wi-Fi network or several “smart” devices (think: smoke detector plus camera doorbell, etc.), that group’s microcosm doesn’t require cell pairing, and they’re not dependent on any network but their own. In the case of Milo, Cardo, Sena, etc., you don’t get “leak through” from your local fire and rescue squad or people out on their motorcycles, quads or snowmobiles also chatting on their own mesh units.

The Milo doesn’t require you to wear a helmet, either

Milo was created to be distinct from helmet-based comms, like Cardo or Sena, requiring mounting in a helmet or using earbuds. Instead, the hockey-puck-sized, three-ounce Milo can be mounted to a pack strap or the bars of your bike, and has an external speaker and six microphones to filter out wind and ambient noise and capture your voice.

Milo

Milo

Milo is incredibly easy to figure out

I recruited a few friends to help me test Milo ahead of a three-hour winter mountain bike ride. The pairing was ridiculously easy, and each Milo talks you through the entire setup via a semi-robotic female voice. “She” even anticipates your obvious questions, guiding you through what the buttons do after setup.

On initial powering up, the unit asks you to say your name so that when you’re in or out of range or shut your Milo off, the other folks in your posse get an alert saying, “Michael has left the group,” “Michael has rejoined the group,” or “Michael is out of range.” The entire face of Milo is a mute/unmute button, and two side buttons at about 10 o’clock control the volume. A larger button at 2 o’clock lets you join a group.

Milo

Eventually, you will be able to pair Milo with wireless earbuds. But this feature has yet to drop, so I could not test it.

Using the Milo is as easy as talking — and the range is impressive

Because we’d moved apart to record our unique voice IDs, I didn’t realize that my buddy Jamie went with the handle “Giant Penis” to refer to himself. His wife, Chrissy, went with Chrissy, and I used my own name. Still, Jamie’s Mike Judge-like genius became the joke that kept on giving, since Jamie also hates to talk during bike rides. So while Chrissy and I chatted away (literally, you can talk and be heard; Milo even sequences conversation so that there’s no overtalk), when we hit the first climb, Jamie did his darndest to drop both of us like we were standing still. He quickly churned beyond the beacon’s 2,000-foot reception, at which point our Milos reported, “Giant Penis is out of range.”

It does a great job recognizing speech

If you’re close enough to hear your friend’s speaker, you’ll also hear your own voice talking to them. In that instance, we’d mute our Milos and chat naturally. Once we were farther apart again, it was gratifying to learn that the devices do know the difference between heavy breathing when you’re busting your ass to catch up with your antisocial riding buddy and actual speech. Even our efforts to trick our Milos (like whistling) didn’t trigger the mics.

Milo’s noise-cancellation is excellent

Remember my comment above about how you couldn’t replicate Milo using your cell phone? Partly, that’s because Milo’s excellent at filtering out the background din and wind noise that plagues Bluetooth headsets and talking on speakerphone.

As for the sequencing feature, at first, it’s a little odd; if you’re talking right when someone else is, there’s a slight delay, as Milo decides who spoke in what order, then fires through the conversation one voice clip at a time. Sometimes that led to having to repeat what you said — but usually, this alleviated the problem of overtalking that would normally result in verbal inscrutability.

What’s Not Ideal About the Milo

You’ll need multiple Milos, and there’s no discount for buying in bulk

Sena and Cardo don’t offer paired discounts, either. But at $249 a piece, having enough Milos for your whole family doesn’t come cheap. And getting your pals to all pony up for one could also require cajoling.

Milo’s maximum group size is just six people

Milo does have limitations, such as range; the brands plans to soon roll out sub-GHz bandwidth transmission that should allow the devices to extend beyond their current 2,000-foot range. In our experience, we were mostly within digital earshot of each other. But as soon as our speeds increased, we’d occasionally untether. It’s not hard to envision skiing and other sports where you’d be popping into and out of reception constantly, and that could become a bother.

Milo

True, the more Milos, the more you’re extending the reach of each unit — remember, they daisy chain off of each other — but the maximum number in a single group is currently capped at six. Cardo Packtalk Outdoor, meanwhile connects up to 15 users. Milo will soon expand to eight per party, but that’s still not 15.

The volume buttons are too small for gloved hands

If you ski, paddle, surf, or ride a bike, you’ll likely either have wet hands or gloved hands. But the volume controls on Milo are both rounded and dinky, so they’re a little tough to access, particularly when your attention is divided (i.e., reaching for a hold while climbing, paddling your kayak, etc.). You could imagine a limited voice-based rather than physical prompts enhancing Milo’s utility. Issuing a command like “max volume” or “mute” would make for a smoother experience.

Milo

Milo doesn’t come with an armband strap

The communicators each come with a small magnetic clip that gloms onto the base of each Milo and a set of thin, stretchy rubber bands similar to what you see from Garmin, Wahoo, and other sports readouts that are especially common in cycling. That lets you attach the device to a bike handlebar or backpack strap; plus, there’s a nylon length of tether to wrap around the pack strap or another anchoring point as a fail-safe.

But considering that Milos are meant to be worn — and you may not also want to wear a backpack, especially for surf and SUP — it feels excessive to charge you $29 extra for an armband.

Milo

The Milo Action Communicator: The Verdict

I’ve used both Cardo and Sena headsets for motorcycling, and not their athletic-specific units but have enough familiarity to know that Milo’s sanded over the typical pairing pain points that can be an issue with those devices. However, both Cardo and Sena outdoor models allow phone pairing so you can make and receive calls, which is not an option with Milo.

For a lot of people, that doesn’t matter; if you go for a bike ride or a hike, or are hitting the cliffs for a climb, you probably don’t want to be bugged by chatting on the phone, and not having to wear a helmet (because who wears a helmet to hike or 4×4 in their Jeep?) definitely expands Milo’s use case, as does its small size and ready portability.

Yep, you could also be my friend Jamie, and not want to talk to friends while you ride, which is fine, too. The more the digital invades the analog, the more you might be trying to avoid constant conversation. Until you need to know where the rest of your posse has gotten to — or need their assistance. The Milo is handy, and I can totally see wanting these in my life for just about every sport I enjoy. And, heck, if I want silence…it comes with an off button.

Courtesy

Milo Action Communicator

• $652.00 at okmilo.com

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