Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Applications: Pinger, from Pinger Inc. and Jott, from Jott Networks Inc.
Running on: Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO network using an LG VX8300
Yay: Accurate voice recognition provides a viable alternative to texting
Nay: Both applications require users to register on a PC. And is this really better than triple-tapping?
We Say: Voice messaging may be preferable in certain circumstances, but we still like SMS.
The press release was predictable, given the handful of tragic car accidents that have been linked to drivers sending text messages recently.
“Nine out of 10 (89%) American adults believe that sending text messages or e-mails while driving is distracting, dangerous, and should be outlawed,” read the press release, which-naturally-came from Pinger Inc., a startup that delivers mobile voice messages. “Even though the overwhelming majority of adults thought driving while texting is dangerous, two in three adults (66%) who drive a car and have used text messaging said they had read text messages or e-mails while they were driving, and 57% of the same population admitted to sending text messages or e-mails from behind the wheel.”
Pinger, a Silicon Valley-based startup that commissioned the study, is hoping to provide an alternative to SMS with a service that automatically delivers recorded voice messages. Users register for the service and create a list of contacts, and Pinger delivers a local number that can be stored as a speed dial. Members call the number, speak the name of the contact they’re trying to reach, then leave a voicemail message. Pinger sends a text message with a click-to-call link, “pinging” the recipient to let them know they have a message and allowing them to receive it with one click
A quick test-drive reveals Pinger’s service to be remarkably easy to use. Registration was a snap, and the company provides a clean, simple interface for inputting contact information. And the service works as advertised: speech-recognition technology accurately identified the correct contact every time, and recipients were hit almost immediately with a note informing them how they could access my voice message.
Meanwhile, Jott Networks is taking a different tack to address the same problem. The Seattle-area company provides a toll-free number where users can leave a voice message up to 15 seconds long; the message is then transcribed into text and delivered to a computer or mobile phone via text message or e-mail.
But while Pinger’s service was nearly instantaneous, Jott’s text messages were typically delivered as much as 10 minutes after the original voice message was recorded. There is a good reason for the latency, however: Jott has chosen to forego voice-recognition software, which can offer limited vocabularies and sometimes fails to deliver accurate messages. Instead, staffers at a call center in India transcribe every message manually.
The move minimizes the risk that common words will be “misunderstood,” but staffers sometimes have trouble with proper names or less-common words. Jott had trouble transcribing the names of several mobile content startups (including Twango, which was recently acquired by Nokia Corp.), but Jott came through impressively with the names of my colleagues Phil Carson, Dan Meyer, Tracy Ford and even Mike Dano.
Both services are free, although Pinger charges users who exceed 10 messages per month on their phone. Both eliminate the inefficient triple-tapping most of us use to write text messages, and both enable users to create groups and send a single message to multiple users at the same time.
Jott and Pinger each serve as viable alternatives to triple-tapping your way down the highway, and each has uses beyond typical text messaging. Jott markets itself as a service for bloggers, for instance, and Pinger touts the fact that senders can leave longer, more detailed messages.
But we’re obsessed with silently sending messages as we sit in meetings, attend industry events or sit on the tarmac waiting to take off so unless we’re behind the wheel, we’ll probably stick with SMS.
