Starting today, Jajah is rolling out a brand spankin’ new service – Jajah@call, a Twitter user-to-user phone call solution. That’s right, ladies and gents. Jajah, the self-proclaimed “world’s most innovative IP communications company,” is bringing this new feature to the wildly popular microblogging service.
This is not too much of a surprise, really, in light of Facebook’s recent voice feature announcement – these are all communication tools, after all, and what is the pinnacle of communication if not voice? It will provide Jajah with increased exposure, while giving always connected Tweeters a new “built-in” VoIP tool. See kids, healthy competition is a good thing!
According to the press release:
How does it work?
To make a call simply send a Twitter message (tweet) with “@call @username” where the ‘username’ is the Twitter name of the person you wish to call. If that person follows you on Twitter, a free two-minute call — the verbal equivalent of a tweet — will be initiated. Both Twitter users need to be JAJAH users as well.
JAJAH@call works no matter how you use Twitter, whether it’s on a computer or mobile phone, at Twitter directly or using a Twitter-client such as Seesmic (web and desktop), TwitterBerry (BlackBerry), Tweetie and Twitterfon (iPhone), and Twidroid (Android).
[Editor's Note: Ha! A 2 minute voice call is the verbal equivalent of a tweet? The verbal equivalent of one of my tweets is 20 seconds of Sims-esque babbling with the occasional semi-coherent rant about whatever coffee shop I'm at. -Greg]
I’m not sure how necessary or useful this new feature is, but then again I’m not much of a twhore. The good news is that users are not required to reveal their phone number (i.e. it can be kept private) as they just need to know the other person’s Twitter handle and, like any phone service, you can simply choose to ignore a call. It’s also really nice that the service works via users’ mobile devices, and is not limited to more traditional computing devices.
On the downside, not only does @call require both participants to have Twitter accounts (duh), it will only work if each person also has an existing Jajah account (meh). That really makes the whole thing a lot less desirable; yet another account/login to remember.
In any case, has anyone had a chance to try this out yet? Let us know! Talk to you #later.
Does not work unless both parties are members of the Jajah@call service. = Deadpool.
Not to mention the 2 minute limit AND the fact that it takes a 1-to-many service and makes it 1-to-1.
This is not innovation.
TweetToCall definitely got there first. http://www.tweettocall.com/ Powered bt Twilio!
So then everyone can see who I called?
We thought about this a lot as we chose the first features for TweetToCall, and decided it would be better for people to either initiate calls via a button click on a website — or by sending DMs (working on that feature now).
On the other hand, sending @call requests does make for some awesome virality and I’m sure when people start seeing the @call requests it will help spread the word. +1 to Jajah for that
It is an interesting tool but twitter users could also see this as disturbing, and do not want to be called, even though you can ignore the call.
What part of “Does not work unless both parties are members of the Jajah@call service.” did you not understand?
I think this is going to bother Twitter users .. the thing is that both the parties are supposed to have it … and the time limit which is 2 min .. your into middle of something .. and the call gets disconnected .. and If you just wanna say ..: hey , hi .. How are you doing ?” .. then I think it is less than 140 characters and u can tweet that ..
Best,
Daina
I wonder how Jajah will handle the retweet of an @call, or a multiple-handle @call tweet. Though I’ve gotta say, having an@call @OSAMA @OBAMA tweet in my timeline might look kinda snazzy.
I believe this service by Jajah, through a third party, violates some context-based patents that hide phone numbers
The problem with it is it’s not as fast as twittering off a text response on a mobile or PC.
Another attempt to grab attention with useless service. Jajah calls are not free. That’s so last millennium! Once Google Voice releases an API and opens up to just everybody, all similar services will evaporate in an instant.
I’m not sure I understand why i need this.
You don’t, but Jajah is all over the blogosphere now.
Honestly, I’m gonna launch a service Tweet2Flush that will flush your toilet by a tweet!
Tweet2Flush may actually be one of the most useful services for twitter yet. Just think, your roommate (this includes the wife and kids) says, “OMG, who forgot to flush?” So you Tweet2Flush from your iPhone or laptop from the other room — problem solved, and you don’t have to take the blame.
I agree that it will be much more useful than Jajah’s new feature!
Mike, Paul from JAJAH here….
The value of @call – in addition to the 2 minutes free – lies in being ale to make and receive calls just via a TwitterID – no phone number required. It’s simple to initiate and uses your real phone.
These are permission-based calls in that you follow each other on Twitter (and during the beta period you have actively joined the beta).
JAJAH@call is not for every phone call you want to make, so do you “need” it…possibly not. But it does show how telephony can really add value for some people in a social media environment.
I like how your trying to spin 2 minutes as a good feature. Nice.
Can you address the value of taking a 1-to-many service and making it 1-to-1? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I believe people use Twitter because it is 1-to-many.
How is your service a value add to the Twitter community?
Chill out buddy. If you do not like it don’t use it.
True. Who pays per minute anyway. My T-Mobile plan has unlimited calling for $39.99/mo, my Vonage home line has unlimited calling (I’m gonna switch to the $10/mo plan that T-Mobile offers), my Google Voice offers free calling – why would I pay to use Jajah? I don’t get it!
awesome.
So I’m in my car or walking down the street, can’t type, so I call a number and my message is tweeted to my followers. Not a horrible transcription, but the actual voice.
http://tweetmyvox.com/
The whole point of twitter is I want to broadcast, not talk to one person.
I like the two minute limit. There should be a one minute option too.
I’ve been using Jajah for quite a while now and I love the service. Specifically, I have a lot of friends who live abroad and Jajah enables me to not have to buy phone cards and put in those complicated numbers. Internet-activated voice is real genius. I guess the twitter integration will mean that the process to make a call will be even faster, too bad Twitter isn’t so global yet…
I think JaJah’s Twitter account got suspended.
FAIL
What a fantastic name for a startup!