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Messaging App Jott Is Blowing Up Among Junior High and High Schoolers

33 points by Errorcod3 11y ago

untog 11y ago
I'm dubious of how many US high schoolers don't have data - many will be on a family plan. Not to say none of them are data-less, but I don't think this will become the next Snapchat based on one feature.
- johnmaguire2013 11y ago
  I agree -- usually in the US teens and preteens have no issue getting data. And they're usually in areas with WiFi anyway. My sister successfully used a Nexus 7 tablet for a year when all her friends had phones, and rarely had any issues. It seems to be the European countries that have users willing to pick up "data-free" apps.
- frederickf 11y ago
  I've never been on a family plan. On a family plan is it possible for parents to see information about the texts their kids send (or even the texts themselves)? If so, that might be a reason for kids to use this service.
  - mng2 11y ago
    Back maybe ten years ago, I was on an AT&T family plan, and the bill had every single text printed out on it. But texts were 10 cents apiece so I didn't really use them.
- quantumsequoia 11y ago
  I graduated high school last year in new york city. While it varies from high school to high school, I can assure you, the majority of high school kids in nyc do not have data plans, including me. That's not to say we can't afford it. My parents and my brother spent 95% of their time in areas with wifi, so they don't really need data. That just left me alone data-less.
- logfromblammo 11y ago
  Kids will occasionally have their mobile data and home wi-fi access revoked by parents, for a variety of reasons, which may or may not include texting/inattentiveness in class. For instance, her first week with a phone, my kid managed to consume almost half of the shared plan for the month. So that phone now has a hard cap set on data usage, and was wi-fi only until it reset for the new billing cycle. For bonus points, much of that time was spent at a Luddite relative's house who did not have a home Internet connection (though leeching off the neighbors was barely possible). That wasn't even a grounding. Parents may wish to lock down a kid's phone to the point where it doesn't do anything but communicate with whitelisted contacts or place a voice call to emergency services. Taking the phone away, the only sure-fire way to eliminate undesired uses, also eliminates the phone's use as a tattletale/tracker for the parents. Parents who are not tech savvy may not even realize that mesh networking even exists, and thus Jott may present a partial countermeasure to grounding restrictions. I have also seen social posts wherein parents encourage the completion of chores by changing the wi-fi password and giving out one character of it to their kids per chore done. Teen-to-teen meshes sabotage that strategy.
aantix 11y ago
Adding 10-20K of young users that don't have the income to even have a data plan? So they're acquiring 10-20K broke users a day? So acquisition is the only way this company stays alive..
- naturalethic 11y ago
  The prior jott.com was a voice memo transcription company purchased by Nuance back around 2010. Random tidbit.
- gcb0 11y ago
  tell that to Disney and cable channels that only show kids shows
  - Erik816 11y ago
    There is a big difference in spending power among families with kids. The point is that this app is targeted at the low end of the market: kids using cell phones without data plans. That probably doesn't overlap much with families paying for cable.
    - Vraxx 11y ago
      It's also possible that the family could pay for a data plan for their kid to use but don't do it because they don't believe their middle school kid needs a data plan. Another possibility the users could have a data plan but prefer not to use it/ are out of data for the month. My much younger siblings on my father's plan are limited to a portion of the data plan (enforced by verizon plan options) and once they go over that they can't get data anymore.
      - aantix 11y ago
        Sure, it's a possibility. Easy to test; start charging for the service. But that won't happen. They'll continue to play imaginary company, acquiring a heavier and heavier daily burden of seemingly broke users.
jbob2000 11y ago
We already know how this goes; App gains favour with youth, youth use it to harass and send nude pics, app bans youth from using it.
dmix 11y ago
Another app that claims to be privacy-friendly and used by teenagers, from their website: > OWN YOUR PRIVACY > Stop wondering what happens to your photos and texts after you hit send. Jott’s privacy features, such as screenshot detection and disappearing chats, keep you in control of your privacy. I hear a lot of people say that kids growing up today will be immune to surveillance since they grew up with it, and will likely not care it's happening. But the privacy of their chats and photos seems pretty important to them, so I question the validity of this stance. Maybe thanks to Snapchat for making this type of feature easy and accessible.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  > But the privacy of their chats and photos seems pretty important to them, so I question the validity of this stance. Maybe thanks to Snapchat for making this type of feature easy and accessible. A) Anyone who wants to bypass this protection and is slightly tech savvy can. B) The illusion of safety is more dangerous than a true lack of safety. You can't be betrayed if you don't trust in the first place.
  - dmix 11y ago
    I'm more interested in the behavior and demand for privacy features shown by youth - than the technical efficacy of the implementation. As engineers we can solve the technical issues over time and improve the status quo, but changing peoples behaviour is incredibly hard. All of the most effective encryption tools in the world won't matter - in the context of privacy - if people don't care about them, or are aware of the risks that exist, or if the tools aren't designed in a way to be usable by the average human.
    - fweespeech 11y ago
      Fair enough, that wasn't clear from your comment. Yes, the fact people adopt the Apps/Technologies that claim to have security/privacy functions is a good thing from a behavior/demand perspective. I just worry they'll get burned by how poor the implementations are and end up with something embarrassing on the internet that floats around forever.
wahsd 11y ago
So is this some sort of mesh network?
- cleverjake 11y ago
  it literally says that it is in the article.
kolev 11y ago
I think those targeting teens should learn that teens change their minds like they change their styles - founders, sell before you get of fashion!
gabemart 11y ago
> More than adults. Girls send, on average, about 3,952 text messages a month, and boys send closer to 2,815 text messages a month The average boy sends 2,815 text messages per month? 94 per day? 6 per waking hour, every hour, every day, every week for a month? On average? The average girl sends 8 text messages per waking hour, every hour? Wow.
- rverghes 11y ago
  Consider that each line in a conversation is a separate text. So if you have a 5 min conversation with a friend, each of you spends 15s on a reply, then you have 10 texts in that conversation. And that was just a short conversation. If you phrase it as "the average teen says 94 sentences to his friends each day", that doesn't sound so extreme. And a good portion of those sentence will come in a few much longer conversations.
- brobdingnagian 11y ago
  What the report actually says is that the typical teen sends and receives 30 texts per day.
lazyant 11y ago
You don't need a phone number with Kik either, texting with bluetooth seems like the modern version of passing little paper notes in class, any "serious" use beyond the classrooms?

33 points by Errorcod3 11y ago

untog 11y ago

I'm dubious of how many US high schoolers don't have data - many will be on a family plan. Not to say none of them are data-less, but I don't think this will become the next Snapchat based on one feature.

johnmaguire2013 11y ago
I agree -- usually in the US teens and preteens have no issue getting data. And they're usually in areas with WiFi anyway. My sister successfully used a Nexus 7 tablet for a year when all her friends had phones, and rarely had any issues. It seems to be the European countries that have users willing to pick up "data-free" apps.
frederickf 11y ago
I've never been on a family plan. On a family plan is it possible for parents to see information about the texts their kids send (or even the texts themselves)? If so, that might be a reason for kids to use this service.
- mng2 11y ago
  Back maybe ten years ago, I was on an AT&T family plan, and the bill had every single text printed out on it. But texts were 10 cents apiece so I didn't really use them.
quantumsequoia 11y ago
I graduated high school last year in new york city. While it varies from high school to high school, I can assure you, the majority of high school kids in nyc do not have data plans, including me. That's not to say we can't afford it. My parents and my brother spent 95% of their time in areas with wifi, so they don't really need data. That just left me alone data-less.
logfromblammo 11y ago
Kids will occasionally have their mobile data and home wi-fi access revoked by parents, for a variety of reasons, which may or may not include texting/inattentiveness in class. For instance, her first week with a phone, my kid managed to consume almost half of the shared plan for the month. So that phone now has a hard cap set on data usage, and was wi-fi only until it reset for the new billing cycle. For bonus points, much of that time was spent at a Luddite relative's house who did not have a home Internet connection (though leeching off the neighbors was barely possible). That wasn't even a grounding. Parents may wish to lock down a kid's phone to the point where it doesn't do anything but communicate with whitelisted contacts or place a voice call to emergency services. Taking the phone away, the only sure-fire way to eliminate undesired uses, also eliminates the phone's use as a tattletale/tracker for the parents. Parents who are not tech savvy may not even realize that mesh networking even exists, and thus Jott may present a partial countermeasure to grounding restrictions. I have also seen social posts wherein parents encourage the completion of chores by changing the wi-fi password and giving out one character of it to their kids per chore done. Teen-to-teen meshes sabotage that strategy.

aantix 11y ago

Adding 10-20K of young users that don't have the income to even have a data plan? So they're acquiring 10-20K broke users a day? So acquisition is the only way this company stays alive..

naturalethic 11y ago
The prior jott.com was a voice memo transcription company purchased by Nuance back around 2010. Random tidbit.
gcb0 11y ago
tell that to Disney and cable channels that only show kids shows
- Erik816 11y ago
  There is a big difference in spending power among families with kids. The point is that this app is targeted at the low end of the market: kids using cell phones without data plans. That probably doesn't overlap much with families paying for cable.
  - Vraxx 11y ago
    It's also possible that the family could pay for a data plan for their kid to use but don't do it because they don't believe their middle school kid needs a data plan. Another possibility the users could have a data plan but prefer not to use it/ are out of data for the month. My much younger siblings on my father's plan are limited to a portion of the data plan (enforced by verizon plan options) and once they go over that they can't get data anymore.
    - aantix 11y ago
      Sure, it's a possibility. Easy to test; start charging for the service. But that won't happen. They'll continue to play imaginary company, acquiring a heavier and heavier daily burden of seemingly broke users.

jbob2000 11y ago

We already know how this goes; App gains favour with youth, youth use it to harass and send nude pics, app bans youth from using it.

dmix 11y ago

Another app that claims to be privacy-friendly and used by teenagers, from their website: > OWN YOUR PRIVACY > Stop wondering what happens to your photos and texts after you hit send. Jott’s privacy features, such as screenshot detection and disappearing chats, keep you in control of your privacy. I hear a lot of people say that kids growing up today will be immune to surveillance since they grew up with it, and will likely not care it's happening. But the privacy of their chats and photos seems pretty important to them, so I question the validity of this stance. Maybe thanks to Snapchat for making this type of feature easy and accessible.

fweespeech 11y ago
> But the privacy of their chats and photos seems pretty important to them, so I question the validity of this stance. Maybe thanks to Snapchat for making this type of feature easy and accessible. A) Anyone who wants to bypass this protection and is slightly tech savvy can. B) The illusion of safety is more dangerous than a true lack of safety. You can't be betrayed if you don't trust in the first place.
- dmix 11y ago
  I'm more interested in the behavior and demand for privacy features shown by youth - than the technical efficacy of the implementation. As engineers we can solve the technical issues over time and improve the status quo, but changing peoples behaviour is incredibly hard. All of the most effective encryption tools in the world won't matter - in the context of privacy - if people don't care about them, or are aware of the risks that exist, or if the tools aren't designed in a way to be usable by the average human.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    Fair enough, that wasn't clear from your comment. Yes, the fact people adopt the Apps/Technologies that claim to have security/privacy functions is a good thing from a behavior/demand perspective. I just worry they'll get burned by how poor the implementations are and end up with something embarrassing on the internet that floats around forever.

wahsd 11y ago

So is this some sort of mesh network?

cleverjake 11y ago
it literally says that it is in the article.

kolev 11y ago

I think those targeting teens should learn that teens change their minds like they change their styles - founders, sell before you get of fashion!

gabemart 11y ago

> More than adults. Girls send, on average, about 3,952 text messages a month, and boys send closer to 2,815 text messages a month The average boy sends 2,815 text messages per month? 94 per day? 6 per waking hour, every hour, every day, every week for a month? On average? The average girl sends 8 text messages per waking hour, every hour? Wow.

rverghes 11y ago
Consider that each line in a conversation is a separate text. So if you have a 5 min conversation with a friend, each of you spends 15s on a reply, then you have 10 texts in that conversation. And that was just a short conversation. If you phrase it as "the average teen says 94 sentences to his friends each day", that doesn't sound so extreme. And a good portion of those sentence will come in a few much longer conversations.
brobdingnagian 11y ago
What the report actually says is that the typical teen sends and receives 30 texts per day.

lazyant 11y ago

You don't need a phone number with Kik either, texting with bluetooth seems like the modern version of passing little paper notes in class, any "serious" use beyond the classrooms?