“Jott” It Down

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Unless I really, really need a feature on my cell phone, or unless it’s something huge like the iPhone, I am usually a little behind the bleeding edge on cell phone or cell phone-related tech. Thus it is with Jott, a service that allows you to send text messaging vocally — it has been available for months, but I only found out about accidentally this weekend.

I’m still looking for the perfect Bluetooth headset, one that combines comfort with ease of use and voice quality, and as such I’ve been looking at the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset, which supposedly has amazing noise cancellation features. Of course, that’s only part of my set of requirements. When deciding whether or not to pull the trigger this weekend (the decision was made somewhat easier by Amazon.com’s return policy), I noticed a Jott promo on the Aliph site.

Jott is a free service that allows you to compose text messages and emails by calling Jott’s toll-free number (866-568-8123), saying the name of a previously added contact, say an up to 30 second message, and hang up. You can even send messages to predefined groups or by selecting “myself,” send yourself a reminder. You can also send messages from the Jott website.

Voice recognition software is used to match the contact name, but the actual message itself is transcribed by employees in (where else) India. This ensures accuracy, but I’m not a fan of outsourcing.

At any rate, does it work? Yes, it does work. And in this age of concerns over text messaging while driving, and possible fatal accidents caused by it, this is a great idea.

The only glitch I found, at least for AT&T service, is replying to a text message from Jott, rather than going back to my phone, goes to the “bit bucket” and vanishes. I also tried sending a message to a phone using the associated email address for that phone number instead, and in this case the reply went to the email address I associated with the account, not my cell phone.

I only saw one message about this on the Jott forum, and the reply from Jott was:

The reply address we provide is an SMTP address that sends to your phone. If your friends providers do not support this then they cannot reply. Most phones should be able to reply to your Jotts.

We Say: Well, maybe it’s an AT&T issue. I am able to reply from my cell phone to normal emails, so I don’t know why it’s not working. Have any Verizon and Sprint users of Jott been able to reply successfully? I’d like to know.