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JAJAH@call - Twitter meets the Phone

[September 17, 2009]

JAJAH@call - Twitter meets the Phone

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/jajahcall---twitter-meets-the-phone.asp.

JAJAH, today announced the beta-launch of its Twitter calling solution, JAJAH (News - Alert)@call. JAJAH users with a Twitter account can make phone calls via Twitter free of charge. @calls are made without revealing your number and without needing to know the number of the person you wish to call - all you need is their Twitter username. The key caveat being BOTH users must be JAJAH users (to do the mapping between Twitter and your phone number)

So how does it work?

To make a call you simply send a Twitter message (tweet) with "@call @username" where the 'username' is the Twitter name of the person you wish to call. According to JAJAH, "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 (News - Alert) (web and desktop), TwitterBerry (BlackBerry), Tweetie and Twitterfon (iPhone), and Twidroid (Android).

Not sure how widespread the usage of this will be. It is limited to 2 minutes and both users have to be on Jajah. How many possible workarounds can we come up with to save a few cents? A cool novelty I guess. I'll probably try it once and then never use it again.