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Here’s a roundup of web services that give you a special phone number for others to ring you, leave a voicemail or text. Most also offer a widget which people can fill in to contact you.

The great thing here is that people can call you at local rates, and the receiver has a web space to listen to their voicemails and contacts that use the same service.

This post also covers related voicemail type services, mostly converting speech-to-text.

Jaxter

Here is a link to my Jaxtr webspace.

Here is the widget:

Get jaxtr Login

SMS

When someone SMS’s me from the Jaxtr widget I get an email with the msg instead of an SMS.
I think this happens because Jaxtr perhaps doesn’t support receiving an SMS if you are in Australia.

So what I can do is get these emails auto-forwarded to my phone email, so instead of receiving an SMS, I’m just receiving an email, this is OK with me.

VOICEMAIL

If someone sends me a voicemail, Jaxtr will send me an email to login and listen…I can also get these emails auto-forwarded to my phone email.
Only thing is I then have to use my phone mobile web to go to the Jaxtr website and listen to the voicemail.
I’d rather it go to my local phone provider voicemail…is this possible. Or be able to ring Jaxtr to listen to my voicemail, or SMS for that matter.

There is a PrivacyShield where you can divert all calls (other than your Jaxtr friends) to voicemail…thank god for that, I don’t want a phone call at 4am in the morning.

NOTE: when I get an email saying I have a new Voicemail, I click on the link to listen to the voicemail, but the webpage never seems to fully load…meaning I can’t listen to these Voicemails.

CALL

People who call you enter their number into the widget, then they receive a call with a number to call, this is your Jaxtr number.

They can save this number on their phone and call it to reach you anytime, handy when you don’t have access to the web (widget or profile page)

People who call you are only paying local rates of where you live.

I can’t remember where to find my special number so I can give it to my friends.

BLAST

You can leave a greeting on your widget, people can play it by clicking on VoiceBlast.
You can update the greeting by ringing a special Jaxtr number anytime…this is almost like presence blogging (Twittergram, MySay)…there are a few other services that offer greetings.

I only have a link to my Jaxtr page on my blog, instead of the big widget, but I’d like to put the VoiceBlast feature on it’s own as a button on my blog sidebar…then use it as audio presence, just like Twitter for text presence.
The VoiceBlast is like an IM status indicator, there is no archive of past VoiceBlasts.

NOTE: I don’t have the VoiceBlast activated on my widget.

[ADDED 8/11/07: Updates on Jaxtr via email from Megan Zoback

- future version will have inbox for text you send and receive and outbound calling like Nonoh and JaJah
- possibly an archive of voicemails you send to Jaxtr friends
- you don’t have a special Jaxtr number, you don’t even have a number for each country, each person that calls you has a unique number
“It is a specific phone number (called a DID in the technical world) which will connect one specific phone number to another specific phone number”
“No matter where in the world the caller might be, they will be assigned a unique local phone number after the first call that they can store and use to call you in the future”
“…instead of assigning you one single number like grand central does, we let your friends and family all over the world get their own local phone numbers to use to call you. This way people aside from those in your same area code can call you for free.
- you have to go to the website to listen to your voicemail
(they do not have a mobile version of their website)
(they don’t have a number to ring to listen to your voicemail)
(they don’t send an email with an audio attachment or an audio MMS)]

Jangl

A similar service is Jangl, from their webpage I can’t see any thing different to Jaxtr.

JaJah

JaJah is very simple, go to the home page, type in your number, type in your friends number, your phone will ring, pick it up and hold while JAJAH connects your call.
If you are registered select your source number and enter your friends number.

It also has a widget so people can call you, just like Jaxtr and Jangl.

Other features are scheduled calls, (kind of like reminders), sending an SMS to a list of people, and conference calls.

Grand Central

This is a great phone management service, sometimes called Unified Communications (UC), I think true UC would have fax, email, IM, conference, etc…all in the one dashboard.

- get one number that represents all your phone numbers
- click to call from your contacts
- voicemail inbox
- screen calls
- listen in
- record calls
- voicemail notifications by email or SMS
- people can call you from a widget (just like Jaxtr, Jangl and JaJah).
Also mobile version.

[ADDED 6/11/07: Ccube

- network low-rate web call (call your Ccube friends, see their profile, profile keyword matches to others)
- widget for Ccube or non-Ccube people to call you
- an alternative to the widget is special number for people to call you (need to have called the person once via the widget to have this special number, or they could give it to you)
- both parties phone rings and they are connected]

Nonoh

Send scheduled text messages to a list, and call someone by filling in a form just like JaJah.

It doesn’t have a widget like the others where people can call you or leave a voicemail.

As I mentioned earlier I wonder if JaJah and Nonoh websites are mobile friendly enough to set up the call on a mobile web-enabled phone…or perhaps from a widget on a mobile startpage like iGoogle.

I guess if you are ringing a registered user with any of these services, you can just ring their special number instead of having to use the web form (the first time you ring will have to be via the webform, in order to get their special number, then you can save it in your contacts).

ConnectMeAnyWhere

- Call people at low-cost
- Call a feed (if you register you can add your favourite feeds)…also see Fonpods and Podlinez
- Send voicemails to individuals and groups as an mp3 to an email (v-mail)…you don’t need an email enabled phone

Each contact has a special number, just call and connect…you can also call non-contacts.
Or call your special “one” number, choose a contact and you will be connected.

Related services

GizmoProject
- download desktop app, where you can access all your IM contacts and VOIP call at low rates…also call landlines.

Barablu
- Download mobile app (for wi-fi enabled phones ) or PC desktop app, where you can access all your IM contacts and VOIP call
- Calls to Barablu friends is free, and use Barablu Out to non-registered people at low rates

Nimbuzz
- Download mobile app, where you can access all your IM contacts and VOIP call, and also BUZZ your offline contacts.

fring
- Download mobile app, where you can access all your IM contacts and VOIP call

Hullo
- You get one number and calls can be transferred to any of your phone numbers.
- Login to the web to see who has tried to reach you, listen to voicemails, etc…also conference calling, personalised messages, send voicemails to a group.

Pinger
- ring your Pinger number, say the names of your contacts and talk a message, your friends will get an SMS with a number to call to listen to the message
- reply/forward a voicemail
- send a voice message as a broadcast to your subscribers
- access via a web inbox and a download app for your phone

Jott
- access by ringing a number or by the web
- phone call (speech to text) blog posting and presence posting eg. Twitter, Jaiku, tumblr, etc…ring up, speak “Twitter”, speak tweet and hang up.
- voice to text a friend and group (ring up, or via web…say your friends name or name of group, and speak msg, friends receive the converted text by email or SMS, they can also choose to hear the voice link or ring to hear)
- add a note (via web or ring a number, optional-speak a folder name, then speak your note)
- reminder (via web or ring a number, say “reminder” and date, receive it as text later on by SMS or email)
- to-do list Jotts (these are deposited into your Jotts folders)

Yap
- download an app on your mobile phone
- speak into your phone, it’s then synched to the web, and converted into text onto your phone
- not released yet, but I’m sure there will be all the delivery methods like the others

kirusa
- send audio SMS messages or reply to text and voice SMS messages by speaking into your phone
- groups messages

Bubble Motion
- “click and talk” is the alternative to “type and read”

Spinvox
- converts voicemail to text and sends an SMS or email , click to listen
- speak a reminder or note into your phone and it will convert to text and send you an email
- speak a blog post and it will convert it to text and send to your blog
- speak your presence and it will convert it to text and send it to Facebook, Twitter or Jaiku
- speak a msg and it converts it to text and sends an SMS or email to one or multiple people
- speak a reply

Gotvoice
- converts voicemail to text and sends an SMS or email
- unify voicemail from all your phones into one inbox

SimulScribe
- converts voicemail to text or mp3 attachment and sends an SMS or email
- unify voicemail from all your phones into one inbox
- send voicemail to multiple people at once
- login on your phone to see your voicemail inbox

Callwave
- web voicemail inbox as a widget
- lets you read your voicemail with Vtxt voicemail to text on your phone, email and web
- send free text messages from your widget

YouMail
- web inbox for your voicemail
- retrieve voicemail by dialing a number and follwoing the prompts
- greetings features

TellMe
- seems more a search by voice

PrivatePhone
- get a special number
- voicemail inbox (access from web or phone)
- get alerts by SMS or email, listen via web or dial a number
- reply to voicemail
- widget of a voicemail so visitors to your blog can play the voicemail

numbr
- temporary FREE anonymous phone number
- forwards incoming call to your home or mobile phone

Reqall
- dial to speak and get it converted to text…check on the web or get sent a email/SMS reminder
- check your voice to text notes on your RSS Reader as each account has an RSS feed
- create entries on your calendar

See more about recording an audio file and sending as an mp3 email attachment.

For all sorts of SMS service see, a list of SMS groups and services and mobile social networks.

[ADDED 11/11/07: Truphone, iSkoot, Mino, Rebtel]