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Update: Voice verification works like a charm.

I am amending the phrase, "needs some more work" to "needs some refinement". One of our readers pointed out that I should have opted for voice verification. I did and it worked like a charm. I still hold on to my other views though.

The discovery

Sabeer Bhatia has come up with yet another communication toy. This time his JaxtrSMS promises to free SMSes from the carriers. JaxtrSMS is an app that is supported on mutiple platforms. It promises to behave like a regular SMS does.

Why would anyone use a SMS app when every mobile phone offers that facility out of the box? Well, here's where Bhatia's genius comes in. You can send SMSes for free from any mobile to any mobile. If you had used web-based free SMS services then this concept has just migrated to your handphones.

 

The Rant

The JaxtrSMS app is available for multiple platforms. And it is also available for tablets. I was happy to see an iPad app. So i downloaded and proceeded to send in my first SMS. That's when I was told by the app that the mobile number I had registered with (my iPad number) had not been verified. I waited for any veification SMS to land on iPad's JaxtrSMS app inbox but in vain. So I changed my mobile number to my regular handphone's. And lo and behold I was hit by this myopic approach to user interaction. I did get an SMS but it asked me to click on the link to verfiy.

Now, if I had a smartphone I could have done that. I use a regular voice-only mobile. There goes my dreams of using JaxtrSMS. Hope someone looks into this.

 

All in all

This problem notwithstanding, I admire the direction Sabeer Bhatia has taken. His shot to fame was with Hotmail which kickstarted the eb-based email revolution. If we have gmail today, we should actually be thanking Sabeer and his partners for coming up with Hotmail.

Sabeer launched Arzoo, an online mentoring network which was ahead of its time. It did not take off. He then came back with Sabsebolo. This new venture plugged an important gap in conference calling utility which is free. The US was teeming with such services while India had none. I am not sure how much money Sabsebolo is making but it is quite popular even among top of the line corporate houses.

This new application is bound to become a toast of the public. However, Sabeer's team has to take care that they are not addressing only the smartphone population. If they do, then they will miss out on the mass market. Well, if that is their objective then they may achieve it.

 

Comments (1)

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Founder & CEO
written by Man_Shah, November 24, 2011

Hi

I had the same problem but you can still have voice verification...please choose the voice verification option and you will be verified..

It is really amazing app and it is so smooth.

Best Regards
Manish

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