Jott from outside of the US via Rebtel

Some of you have probably already heard about Jott: Jott allows you to call their toll-free number, speak a short note to yourself and Jott will transcribe the note, store it in your Jott account, SMS it to yourself or someone else, etc. The transcriptions are amazingly accurate, which is due to Jott using a mixture of automated speech-to-text and human transcription. It works very well for me, even though I’m not a native English speaker. Our favourite productivity blog, Lifehacker, has already quite a lot of useful applications for and information about Jott.

Only downside: Jott only works if you have a U.S. or Canadian phone number from which you can originate calls to Jott. If you’re from the UK you can use the similar service reQuall instead. But if you’re neither from North America nor from the UK and you still want to try out Jott, here is a way out. It will mean that the free calls to Jott get replaced by merely cheap calls to Jott, however, but if that doesn’t stop you read on.

What you need is a Rebtel account. Rebtel are the guys that allow you to make very cheap international phone calls from your cellphone by dialing a local number that then gets forwarded via VoIP to your contacts. So, set up an account with them and if you’re done, go to your “My Rebtel / My Contacts” screen. There you add a new contact named “Jott”, using their alternative, non-toll-free, number +1-347-523-8843:

Jott via Rebtel - Add â€œJottâ€ Contact

If you have done this you will receive an SMS with the number you can now reach Jott at. But now you still need to set up your Jott account. For this you need the U.S. number Jott “sees” when you call it through Rebtel. And you can get this instantly: Just click on the “Instructions” link next to your newly created contact “Jott” in your Rebtel contact list. A window will pop-up that shows you the U.S. phone number Jott now thinks it can reach you at:

Jott via Rebtel - Find U.S. Phone Number