First, reading a communicator’s opinions via text (e.g. in an email) compared to hearing exactly the same message via speech (e.g. a voice message), decreases observers’ ability to accurately assess the communicator’s true (self-reported) thoughts and feelings. However, seeing a communicator in addition to hearing her does not further improve accuracy. This suggests that hearing communicators’ voices uniquely provides insight into their mental states—perhaps more so than watching them speak. There are even circumstances under which observers may be more accurate when hearing a communicator speak than when hearing and seeing her. One consequence of communicating via text online, therefore, is that it can reduce people’s understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings (compared to communicating in speech offline), provoking possible miscommunication. Another consequence is that losing access to vocal paralinguistic cues can reduce feelings of social connection.Consumers’ software purchase decisions are influenced both by online reviews and by their experiences with free samples provided by firms. This paper empirically investigates the differential effects of online reviews (user and editor ratings) on consumers’ sample downloading behavior, using a dataset drawn from a large software free sampling website CNET.com. Our findings extend the previous research by suggesting that information disclosure levels of free samples (indicated by licenses) moderates the impacts of online reviews on consumers’ sample downloads. For samples that disclose a great level of information, higher user ratings can increase downloads; otherwise, higher user ratings fail to increase downloads. When both user and editor ratings are available to consumers, only user ratings can increase sample downloads. The findings can be explained by consumers’ two-stage information process whereby consumers first refer to online reviews and then determine whether to sample software. This study provides practical implications on the design of information disclosure channel and offers suggestions for firms regarding how to select and apply sample licenses.