Speak your Tweets with TwitterFone

in connect, site reviews, social media, twitter by faryl on January 13th, 20092 Comments

Just as I was getting ready to call it a night, I received my invite to TwitterFone, a voice-to-text service for Twitter (currently in a closed beta; you can sign up for the waiting list here).

The site explains:

TwitterFone is free service that lets you update your Twitter feed using your voice from any mobile or cell phone. You call it, speak your tweet, and hang up. A short while later, your tweet will be posted on Twitter. Magic!

You can also listen to your Twitter stream, and while you’re listening, you can record a reply or send a direct message – cool huh!

The service is free and just uses regular minutes from your regular phone plan. There are TwitterFone numbers in many countries, so you should always have a TwitterFone number near you.

When TwitterFone answers, just speak your tweet, and then hangup. TwitterFone will then transcibe your tweet and post it to Twitter. A short time after you call – typically 5-10 minutes – it’ll be there.

The registration process was simple: follow the link, provide the usual round of registration details (worth noting: you do need to provide your Twitter user name and password for this service), and enter the verification code that was promptly sent to my phone.Within about five minutes I was registered and ready to go.

Of course, in my haste to try it out, I pushed the wrong button (“#” instead of “*”) and accidentally sent my dorky first attempt into the Twitterverse for all to hear. As promised on their site, TwitterFone transcribed what I said from voice to text, and posted it to my Twitter feed for me.

My tweet appeared within a minute of being sent, and its transcription was (unfortunately) exactly what I’d said (including the correct spelling of my first name, something the average customer service agent seems unable to do). This tweet was then promptly deleted (by me) to record a some-what-less-dorky one that you can see here:

Yes, this one's the LESS dorky message!

Clicking the included link takes you to the TwitterFone site where you can listen to my recording as well.

Quite nifty, eh?!

I’ve only sent the two tweets so far. Rather than subject anyone following me to a barrage of sleep-deprived tweets, I’ll be sending some test tweets throughout the course of the next couple of days (if you’re interested, you can follow me on Twitter here). I’m curious to see how TwitterFone handles ambiguous words such as names or acronymns. Michael Arrington’s initial experience with the product proved its prowess with random sounds such as coughs.

Listening to my Twitter stream (i.e., tweets of people I am following) was a little like listening to one of the Monk-e-mail simians recite the tweets to me. Nonetheless, it was simple to access and easy to understand them.

Anyone living in the recently designated no-texting-while-driving state of California should easily be able to find uses for this service. Even in areas where tweeting-while-driving has not yet been outlawed, hands-free TwitterFone usage would be a safer alternative to one-handed typing. Certainly listening to, vs. reading, tweets while driving is the safer option!

More uses for TwitterFone that initially popped into my head:

Voice is better at capturing emotions/intent than a typed message is – especially when you’re limited to 140 characters.
Recorded messages are a great way of getting around that 140 character limit -messages can be up to 30 seconds in length.
Sending direct messages to yourself would be a great way of quickly adding items to a “to do” list (would love to see this integrated with Remember the Milk or a similar service).
From a usability perspective, TwitterFone makes Twitter more accessible to the sight-impaired.
The ability to listen to your Twitter stream makes it possible to check your Tweets while on the go, when it might not be practical or safe to read them (e.g., while driving, as previously mentioned, or even walking on a crowded street or in the grocery store – you know you do it!)
TwitterFone means you don’t have to rely on an internet connection or SMS-enabled device to send and receive tweets. Handy for those without Smart Phones, PDAs or iPhones when they’re not at their desks. Useful for Twitter addicts in an “emergency situation” when all you’ve got is a landline!

Your turn:

How might you see yourself using this service?
Would you choose it over similar Third Party Twitter apps that are out there (e.g., Twitsay or Jott?
Other thoughts?

CrunchBase Information

TwitterFone

Information provided by CrunchBase

Link to this page