3jam: New SMS Group Conferencing for Treonauts

While in San Francisco, a friend introduced me to a new company which she said “does SMS group conferencing”.  Like many my first reaction was “doesn’t someone else already do that?”.  The answer is no.

3jam, as the company is called, uses patented technology to deliver the first service that provides Treonauts (as well as all other standard cellphone users) the capability to simultaneously broadcast a single private SMS text message to as many people as you like and for any replies to be similarly received by all people in the group.

As it stands today, you could send the same text message ‘outbound’ to multiple recipients without 3jam.  However, none of your recipients is able to know who else received the message and their ‘inbound’ replies are limited only to you instead of the whole recipient group.  3jam addresses and solves this by making it easy to start a sort of ‘SMS conferencing’ among a multitude of handsets in which all parties are participants not just the original sender.

Additionally, aside from providing an extremely useful service the best parts about using 3jam is that 1) it is completely free; 2) it saves you money because you only pay for one SMS message sent even if you’re addressing it to 10 people and 3) it works without the need to install software of any kind on your Treo smartphone or standard phone.

The company claims that ‘3jamming’ is a totally new way to communicate via SMS and I am strongly inclined to agree particularly as they make a very convincing case as to why people will find 3jam easier and more convenient to use when compared to other forms of communication:

Why not just call people?

• People are busy. Phone calls are more intrusive than text messages. People are not always available to have a conversation at exactly the same time.
• It’s not always easy to engage a group of people to make a decision over the phone. It requires multiple phone calls and can result in a less than ideal outcome where only the caller is party to the entire conversation.

Why not use email?

• Email only works when people have access to it (are sitting behind a computer). Most people don’t use mobile email.
• Even if people have mobile email, there is too much noise in everyday email. I don't want my phone to buzz every time I get an email events newsletter, an email notice that my credit card statement is online, or worst of all spam. But I do want my phone to buzz if a friend is sending me a message.
• It doesn’t work well for conversations that need to take place in near real-time

Why not use mobile instant messaging?

• Only works when I’m signed in
• Not all of my friends are on the same IM network
• Not all phones have IM, and even if they do I have to learn how to do it. Text messaging is much easier and ubiquitous.
• Friends on computers will send long responses and clog my inbox

Why not use Push-to-Talk?

• It’s less intrusive and easier to receive and respond to a short text message than a voice message in loud crowded places.
• I can read and respond to the messages later if I’m busy at the moment it’s sent. There is no store and forward for PTT messages

Getting Started With 3jam
Although 3jam has not yet officially launched I suggested that we could provide the perfect launch platform for their services as Treonauts are known for their pragmatic and constructive input.  3jam agreed and it has offered to provide the first 250 Treonauts to sign up to their service with a full free preview (currently restricted to US cell numbers).

Getting started is extremely simple.  You can either follow this link to the 3jam/Treonauts web page and enter your name and US cell number or alternatively send an SMS message to 3jam’s server at 415 489 8140 with the text “signup yourfirstname yourlastname”.  You will then receive a welcome text message from 3jam – save this number in your phonebook.

Next you’ll need to add friends or colleagues’ cell numbers in your 3jam address book.  For example, to add Mary Lewis you would send an SMS message to 3jam (415 489 8140) with the text “add mary lewis 2125552233”.  Simply repeat this step to add more numbers – you can only send group text messages to people who are in your 3jam address book. [3jam plans to add an online address book upload tool in the future to facilitate this process.]

Finally, you’ll be ready to send group text messages.  Here again you will send an SMS message to 3jam (415 489 8140) but this time with either the first or last names of people in your address book plus the word “chat” in front. For example, to start a chat with Mary and Peter, you would send the following message “chat mary peter”.  You will receive a confirmation text message that your chat has started. Reply to it to send a text message to your selected group.

3jam In Action
A quick scenario using 3jam in a business environment could be to seek a simple and quick confirmation from all members of a team who are currently out in the field.  For example:

From Andrew to Peter, Mary, John: is everyone ready for the presentation this afternoon?
Reply from Mary to <all>: almost done. waiting for one last slide from john
Reply from John to <all>: all done here. slide on the way to mary within 30mins
Reply from Peter to <all>: done. flight delayed 20mins but should be 4 meeting on time
From Andrew to <all>: k let me know changes. counting on you to make it happen! meet client lobby 15mins prior.

If you like 3jamming please let me and 3jam know via the comments section below and naturally also if you have questions or suggestions for improving the service in the future.

[Please note that I have made some updates to this post for additional clarification of what 3jam’s service has to offer.]

Treonauts are always jamming…