Twitter is certainly usable via SMS on a mobile device, but typing messages on a phone is cumbersome. A service that converts voice to text and then posts it to Twitter could be a niche hit.
A number of services have launched to allow users to record messages and link to the recording from Twitter (see Twitsay, Twittergram). And services like Jott and Spinvox are providing tools that allow voice to text conversion for Twitter, Facebook, Pownce and other social networks. But nothing I’ve seen so far is as simple to use as TwitterFone, a new service by serial Irish entrepreneur Pat Phelan.
The service launched moments ago into private beta. To use it you need to verify your phone number and Twitter account, and TwitterFone will then give you a local phone number to call to leave messages (they support the U.S., UK and Ireland now, adding more). Then, any message you send will be transcribed, and posted to Twitter along with a link to the recording (here’s a test message I left). If the message is longer than 140 characters, just the first part is transcribed, but the entire recording is still available. There is a time limit of 15 seconds on the recording.
The service is partially automated via voice recognition software, and flagged words go to a human for translation. For now the service supports English only; Japanese support is promised in 8 weeks or so.
One problem/slightly humorous aspect of the service is that there is no going back once you start recording. In this test message I started coughing and just hung up. The coughing was dutifully transcribed and posted. A simple option at the end of a call to delete the message is needed.
The service is free for now, they may add premium features over time. We have a handful of beta accounts to give out now. Tell us why you think you need it in the comments below - the most compelling get an account.
I’m adorable
How many services can rely solely on Twitter? Wow.
I actually do need one. Do you really want me trying to Twitter while driving down the highway? I mean, sometimes things just need to be said.
I use antlers in all of my decorating.
By the way, what about Jott?!
2nd
I need it so I can tweet about my startup ideas while driving (:
I’ve been using Jott to transcribe my voice into tweets. It seems just as easy as this plus you don’t need to add a new number to your phone.
See http://jott.com/jott/twitter.html
Can I HAS a teletubby theme for twitterfun?
This would be the perfect way to twitter while driving, and keeping your hands on the wheel. (using a handsfree device, that is).
That’s hilarious about the coughing–I always end up choking in the middle of leaving outgoing voicemail messages. I’ve just activated Voice Recognition on my Dell, and am enthralled by the possibilities, but it has to learn my voice better, because there are still lots of transcription mistakes.
This sounds like a great new technology, though.
Earth is flat. Isn’t *that* compelling ?
I don’t pay for a SMS plan. I need this service.
my kid is disabled and there are numerous times when he is in need of quick medical care. having something like this would allow me to contact friends, family, support network in one shot
This is really interesting! I also found something cool.. you can download your voice message in mp3 format (if you require one) by visiting the twitterfone page and adding .mp3 extension at the end!
Try this: http://www.twitterfone.com/l/jdlm2tanwm6y.mp3 (Actual URL: http://www.twitterfone.com/l/jdlm2tanwm6y + .mp3) !!
Any invite codes available
?
Cheers,
Vinay
I have 20 million dolars in an account in Nigeria and I need twitterphone in order to be in contact with my distant relative cousin in the u.s.a who can help me transfer the funds. If you give me a twitterphone invite and your bank account number, I assure you that I can provide you with 10% of the transaction value. This is 100% safe and legal.
I’m constantly mistyping my tweets. Damn these fat fingers!
I need this like nobody’s business. considering it takes me an hour to drive 14 miles to work, it’s only a matter of time before I cause an accident by twittering while driving (#twd). TwitterFone, assuming it understands me, could save my life and others.
It will make it easier for me to record the Chuck Norris Fact battles we have in our office. Example: When you open a can of whoop a.. Chuck Norris jumps out. Reply: All ninety-nine of Jay-Z’s problems are Chuck Norris. It will be easier to twitter the battle with a mic then with a text.
You have invites? I’d love to try it.
Who would *not* want to trash talk their Twitter friends in hands-free mode?
Great lead Michael, I’m currently testing the convergence of voice and blogging services including Pinger (www.pinger.com) and Grand Cental (www. grandcentral.com). Had a early look at MySay but moved everything over to Pinger.
Suffice it to say that there are some cool voice integration services coming our way. I’d like to check out this service too and see if it makes reaching the blogosphere more dynamic and more interesting.
i tried both twitsay (http://twitsay.com/) and twittergram (http://www.twittergram.com/phone). both are also free. twitsay only lets you leave 10 second messages, but at least you can call a german number (uk and us numbers coming soon). twittergram you call blogtalkradio. it would be nice to find one service that allows for longer messages and has international numbers. i’d like to try twitterfone. but i still have my doubts that this will be the big thing.
i need it because my hands are starting to hurt
now i just need a thought to twitter interface.
I’d love a TwitterFone account. I don’t get to Twit away from the computer because sms messages are too expensive. But I have free nights and weekends on my phone, which just so happen to be the times I’m way from the computer. It would allow me to use Twitter much more!
I’ve got a pretty bad cough. Maybe this will help.
’cause TechCrunch is the BEST !!
Twitter is my drug and twitterfone is a much badly needed route of administration.
want to try twitterfone to see if it would be good for security validation and decreasing cc fraud….at points of purchase, it would be great if the cc companies text you a security q, and you call back and just respond by voice or text….
Hi! I would love to try this out because I am going to San Francisco for an event and would love to update my readers on GA with quick twitters. Mostly because I won’t be able to write until the end of the night. I hope you pick me!!
Trina ^_^
I’m part Irish
I’m traveling all over the place this month
So I will definitely use it
@16 .. that was funny
!!! Waiting for invite code please 
!
I’m really popular so typing all of my tweets by sms-text cramps my hands and doing it all by voice would be a more effective way to let my followers keep up with me. Plus I think the twitterfone technology is awesome.
gosh dangit! i don’t have an iphone, twitter sucks to text to, and SOMEBODY needs to be enabler to by twitter addiction! i neeed it.
I commute from Sunnyvale to SF every morning
I’ll use it in my negotiations with Quaker Oats to get them to rename the sugarery goodness that is the “Cap’n Crunch” to something more tech savvy (I wonder What we could replace Cap’n with?)
Covering the Magic vs Pistons Game on Saturday. Could voice updates at crucial moments. That would rock!
would be cool to integrate into the dailytwitter.com site, as part of an alpha trial - a microblogging newspaper for twitter channels, this would be a good way of looking at bringing on board more citizen journalists using different technologies to build the editorial in the site.
dt
checked your prostate and it’s okay; can I get a beta account?
Here’s why I should receive a beta account:
1. Because I actually followed directions and am leaving a ‘compelling reason’ on comments as you requested
2. I am a big advocate of social media tools like this to begin with, and would happily blog about my experience using this tool, thus spreading the good (or bad?) word.
3. Because apparently I like to tweet while driving which isn’t safe, so it would help to keep other drivers around me on the road safe.
4. Because I do travel often, and see above reason…
5. It would be amusing to my followers, as I tend to speak my thoughts before filtering through a brain cell quite often (uncensored Research Goddess).
6. I took the time to numerically list my reasons in an orderly fashion.
@40 Good tactic, Amybeth, but Arrington doesn’t strike me as a by the numbers kind of guy.
I love it try out new Web services since I am a computer consultant and can advise people on what’s good, what’s not, what’s hot, what works. twitter.com/cbee
In the third grade, a crazy, spooky looking girl chased me with finger paint, and smeared it on my shirt, cackling like the wicked witch. It left emotional scars (at night I still hear the laughing, and I constantly check the back of shirts I’m wearing in the mirror).
The Twitterfone account would help with the healing.
I am Canadian and we don’t have iphones and I have a horrid text-unfriendly phone.
Confession: I use Jot right now but it’s accuracy is so that I have followers who think I am a poet talking about gestational headpant when I am just observing a
gas station attendant.
Certainly feels like the whole world revolves around Twitter… at least for now
Wait til we can leave comments here using Twitterfone. Much better than those dumbass Seesmic video comments.
I’d love to check out this fascinating-sounding service and write about it on my site, Online Media Cultist, and tweet about it (and on it) on Twitter.
I don’t know if that’s a compelling enough reason for y’all to provide me with a private beta invite, but that’s my reason, and I’m sticking to it.
Could this be integrated with Seesmic, so when you Tweet on the Fone … and do it while simultaneously recording a Seesmic video comment … you get a video and text as well.
I confess I don’t really really need a beta account, but I still want one because I’m a test junkie.
I actually began work on this same of service at Tweet.FM, but I’m hesitant to launch because I just don’t think the voice over twitter medium will take off. There could eventually be some niche that it will become applicable to, but just leaving simple tweets in audio form won’t be all that useful, as we’ll likely find out over the next year or so. Similar services have tried it, and failed. Hell, even Twitter’s founders started with Odeo (audio blogging), then realized text micro-blogging was where it was at, founded Twitter, and sold Odeo. I don’t that failure was a “Just not the right time” thing either.
The main issue in my mind is that people need something visually to entertain them, or they lose interest very quickly. Who is the YouTube of audio? Houndbite? Evoca? Yeah, exactly, “Who?” Seesmic will work because there is that visual aspect, but it won’t ever explode because preparing for near real-time audio/video is a whole different beast than just thinking of what to type in 140 characters.
So, hopefully some useful application will arise out of it, but since I started development on Tweet.FM, I’ve crossed off most of the 15 or so uses I can see for it. It’s like Jott.com. Cool? Yes. Will people find any practical purpose for it? No.