The Next Web

Phone Calls Come to Twitter.

Picture 4JAJAH, a VOIP company, will announce the beta-launch of its Twitter calling solution, JAJAH@call tomorrow.

You’ll be able to make phone calls via Twitter free of charge to anyone in the world, so long as they follow you back and have JAJAH accounts.

@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 beauty of JAJAH is that it uses the Internet to connect two standard phones, thus implementing both the advantage of the Internet as a low-cost service and the comfort of using a regular telephone device.

How does it work with Twitter?

To make a call simply send a 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.

This is Potentially Huge

It’s no secret that Twitter aims to become a communication standard. With the integration of telephone calls, it brings the service that much closer to achieving that goal by ensuring that people are only connected to people they want to be connected with, and have the option of either voice or text communication – in effect, almost replacing the telephone number and text message at one fell swoop.

Communication service providers have caught onto the fact that Social Networks have the potential to replace communication methods of the last century, and not just via text. Facebook users will also now be able to communicate with each other via voice using a third-party application from Vivox. However, I foresee Twitter/JAJAH’s implementation to have greater success, primarily due to the simplicity and open nature of Twitter, in contrast to the rather laborious, often frustrating, experience of adding of applications on Facebook.

Tto get started, sign up on JAJAH and keep up to date via the @call on account Twitter.

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  • Do people still make calls? :-)
  • Maybe if they let you do conference calls it would be better? @call user1 user2 ...
  • Srini
    There are many countries where Jajah does not work because of regulatory/VoIP issues. The 2-min free call without revealing numbers might work for tweens / blind dating but is not really for serious users or those that are working. Imagine all my followers knowing who I am calling... is that stupid or what... (it is like letting everyone know who I am sending a DM to!)

    If voice was integrated into Twitter, and you could do it from your PC directly, perhaps one might use it.. as an alternative to typing out several DMs...
  • Why wait for Jajah to launch their service tomorrow. Make free 4 minute long calls via Twitter with TweetToCall

    http://www.tweettocall.com

    (no international though, sorry)
  • Websudasa
    Wow..It's like easy to communicate through twitter with any of our fan or our follower. More easy to communicate with some people who are interested in your services or your product

    Thanks
    websudasa.
  • I just tried to set it up on my account (I'm based in Europe). It only works if you have a USA phone number.
  • Anonymous
    Just put some credit on and made my first call. works in holland. Agree with Zee this could be huge!
  • Tee
    All this hype over a 2 (TWO) minute phone call! It takes that long to say "Can you hear me now?".

    Oh bother...
  • This is interesting but I am still confused as to how this will work. But Zee I think you are right on the money when you see this could be huge :)
  • Sounds interesting but it's only for Us... (i'am in europe):(
  • Shyam Subramanyan
    Square peg in a round hole, but I guess you gotta try everything to see what works.
  • I went on the site to sign up, but I read the Terms of Use and it said there was a charge in the last paragraphs about payment
  • Ariel
    Problem is that to use i have to join twitter.
  • Robbed - anyone can currently see who you communicate with by the @ and RT characters - only difference is they now know you are calling them. Does that really matter? Can't see what harm that can do, after all the content of that call will be private.

    Teej - some interesting points, especially about needing 4 accounts. I like the attempt to improve communication but I think only a Twitter own app that doesn't require any other accounts would get decent uptake.

    thanks
    james
  • Great concept, but what an inconvenience. There are far more convenient ways to phone. check out this system

    http://www.freeinternationalcall.co.za
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