With Jott: We Say Bye-Bye to Airtel, Etisalat, Glo and MTN Data Plan

Some few years BBM was considered a messaging apps for the elite. However, the coming up of 2Go, WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber the trajectory changed. Now everyone is socialising with anyone. As the law of nature, time, space and technological competition made things absolute and regarded as ‘old school’ so do these apps. With Jott in town, BBM, 2Go, WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber are now messaging apps for the old school!

With Jott, the new messaging apps in town, users can chat with friends and family ‘without using a phone signal or Internet connection’. In other words, using Jott’s messaging app doesn’t require buying a data plan from Airtel, Etisalat, Glo or MTN. As such, users can now be free from mobile carriers’ enslavement of paying for data.

Then, the one million dollar question is, how does this work? The technology according to Jared Allgood, the CEO and Cofounder of this instant messaging apps utilises Wi-Fi Radio and Bluetooth radio of your phone to talk to other phones without a server in the middle. The technology allows users to communicate with one another even if someone is in the plane or on top of the mountain. The only limitation at this time is the range should not be more than 2000 feet.

The application can be found in both Android and iOS store for download. The messaging apps like others have beautiful features including among others, emoji stickers, self-destructing capabilities, and screenshot detection.

The messaging apps is barely three months but is now the most popular instant messaging apps among teens in the USA. It is now up to anyone wishing to leverage this technology to make positive use of it. As for me, I am particularly pleased about it for the simple fact that it will certainly be useful in my research work. Useful in a sense that, my research is currently on the use of ICTs in humanitarian emergencies. In which in my opinion, is both timely and relevant.

Postscript: Having installed it on my Phone, I haven’t found a single person using it out of my nearly 4000 contacts.

Credit: Heard about it via @CNNMoney Twitter handle