Service lets phone users dictate email

A UK telecoms firm is offering a service that converts voicemail messages to text and delivers them to intended recipients as email or SMS text messages.

MyJotter said that its service of the same name allows users to easily dictate messages instead of typing them. The tool could prove useful for staff with mobile phones, for whom keying in data can be laborious using standard handset keypads.

"In a few moments MyJotter literally turns talk into text. This is invaluable if you need to write a note or draft a document, for example between meetings, while in an airport, or when driving," said chief executive of MyJotter David Cosserat.

The MyJotter service, available now in the UK, uses a team of professional audio typists instead of speech recognition technology to transcribe dictated messages. This is because only human operators are capable of recognising the correct words in continuous speech, according to MyJotter.

While this will raise confidentiality concerns among many potential users, MyJotter said the transactions are anonymous because the operators do not have access to the identity or phone number of either the senders or receivers.

Users can register for MyJotter via the company web site, where they can add contacts' email and phone details. This allows messages to be sent by simply stating the contact's name at the start of the message, along with the delivery method.

MyJotter costs £1 per minute to leave a message from a BT landline; or a corporate account can be set up with a charge of 1p per word transcribed.