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July 11, 2008

Jott – Turn Voice into Text With Just One Call

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Let’s admit it, we’ve all dreamed of having a personal assistant. Someone to write our emails, send our text messages, organize our calendars and do our comparison shopping on Amazon.com. Finally, Jott makes this dream possible for all of us.

After registering your account with your mobile or home phone number, you’re ready to Jott. A call to Jott’s toll-free number is answered with “Who do you want to Jott?” Simply tell Jott who to message (such as “myself” to send yourself a reminder message), what you want to say and then hang up. Jott uses human transcribers to listen to your message and then transcribe it into an email, text message or to-do list item. Jott even allows you to update your favorite web services like Blogger, Twitter or Google Calendar with a voice message.

Practical Uses:

  • Alert your sales team that you will be late to a meeting using just one phone call to Jott
  • Send yourself to-do reminders while driving without any typing involved (slightly safer)
  • Add events to your family’s Google Calendar by simply using your voice

Insider Tips:

  • Speak clearly! You don’t want your boss to receive a text messaging reading “I’m a latent jerk”, when you’re trying to say “I’ll be late to work.”
  • Use contact groups to quickly send a message to multiple individuals in one step
  • Try out Jott Feeds to have your local weather, sports or political news (to name a few) read to you over the phone

What We Liked:

  • Update your favorite web services like Blogger or Twitter with a quick call to Jott
  • Your messages are also stored as voice files so recipients can call the provided number to hear your actual voice recording in the event that the transcription doesn’t make sense
  • Jott’s mobile site equivalent (jott.com/mobile) is perfect for reviewing to-do lists while on the go

What We Didn’t Like:

  • Although it’s close to instant gratification, there is still a delay in the service
  • When someone receives a text from you, it is preceded by a header from Jott that eats into precious character limits
  • Long messages may arrive in separated, multiple text messages because most wireless carriers have a 160 character limit
  • The receiver can’t reply directly to your text messages

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: Late 2006
  • Privately held
  • Headquarters: Seattle, WA
  • Founded by John Pollard, Shreedhar Madhavapeddi
  • Web site: http://www.jott.com

Costs:

  • Free

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