Jott is no more
Recently, Seattle based Jott made the announcement that just days before their fifth birthday, they’re shutting their doors. Jott lets users speak messages which can be sent to themselves or other as voice messages or transcribed emails- many in the real estate have become accustomed to the service in their daily business.
We first wrote about Jott in 2007 and later vented that the free tool became a pay to play tool, but understood that in 2007 when they got a cool $5.4 million in Series A funding that they would have to suck it up and charge for the service.
Many loyal users stuck around, even in 2009 when Jott was acquired by Nuance for an undisclosed amount. Nuance also acquired MacVoice and SpinVox in 2010, rounding out their suite of tools.
Now, in 2011, Nuance/Jott has announced that Jott is no more as of May 3, 2011.
Making the transition
In a letter to users, Jott said, “Please be assured that we’ll work to help you through this transition. We truly appreciate your business and enthusiastic support over the years, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.” They also acknowledged that “This may seem counter-intuitive – success leading to a shutdown,” but that the Jott talent would join Nuance’s broader voice-to-text team.
Jott gives recommendations to current users on how to export all of your messages into a .csv file, permanently delete your account and move your voicemail back to your carrier. They note that many carriers offer voice-to-text through the Nuance brand and offers suggestions on transitioning to other voice-to-text technologies.
Tina Merritt
April 14, 2011 at 7:40 am
I'll miss Jott. They offered a service I haven't been able to find elsewhere.
John Fabrega
April 14, 2011 at 1:03 pm
As your article suggests, there are a number of speech-to-text companies that have left the consumer market after an acquisition and 'left their users in a lurch'. GotVoice did similarly a few months ago.
If you are looking for 'notes to self' and/or voicemail transcription one alternative is http://www.TalkScribe.com
It does not have some of the neat features like speak a calendar entry, send a message to somebody else, speak a task, but offers high quality transcriptions of up to 5 minutes in duration.
A free trial is available so you can 'see' for yourself.
Full Disclosure… I work for TalkScribe