Hi everyone!

Welcome to the latest edition of your pseudo-monthly JMP update!

In case it’s been a while since you checked out JMP, here’s a refresher: JMP lets you send and receive text and picture messages (and calls) through a real phone number right from your computer, tablet, phone, or anything else that has a Jabber client.  Among other things, JMP has these features: Your phone number on every device; Multiple phone numbers, one app; Free as in Freedom; Share one number with multiple people.

As foreshadowed last month, the new voicemail transcription engine is now live for all customers who have transcription enabled (which it is by default).  This should improve speed and accuracy, and bring support for many more languages to the system.  Let us know if you notice any issues with the new transcriptions.

From the beginning of the voicemail system we have supported a default text-to-speech greeting if a custom one is not set.  The name used in this greeting is sourced from the customer’s legacy vCard if they have one set up.  We now also support modern vCard4 and PEP Nickname specifications to get this data, which should result in it working for many more people with many more clients.  Check the voicemail FAQ for details.

Many new JMP customers are also new to Jabber in general, and so our signup process usually suggests one or more free-to-use volunteer-run Jabber services that one can sign up with to get a working Jabber ID.  These services are best-effort by volunteers, and this month one of the ones most popular with our customers experienced an extended outage.  The best protection you can have against any kind of outage at your Jabber service is to have your Jabber ID be attached to a DNS name you control.  With or without your own name, we also include the option for any JMP customer to get an instance hosted by Snikket at no extra charge.  Please contact support if you have any questions about this.

To learn what’s happening with JMP between newsletters, here are some ways you can find out:

• The chatroom remains the heart of the community.  You can also join from your web browser or from Matrix.
• The blog, where you may be reading this. Can also be followed in a client like Movim.
• The Lemmy Community
• The Subreddit
• On Twitter

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful rest of your week!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the latest edition of your pseudo-monthly JMP update!

In case it’s been a while since you checked out JMP, here’s a refresher: JMP lets you send and receive text and picture messages (and calls) through a real phone number right from your computer, tablet, phone, or anything else that has a Jabber client.  Among other things, JMP has these features: Your phone number on every device; Multiple phone numbers, one app; Free as in Freedom; Share one number with multiple people.

We have made a deal with Snikket CIC to include their Jabber hosting as an option for all JMP customers.  Anyone with a paid-up JMP account may get an instance hosted by Snikket CIC at no extra charge.  Your Snikket instance will be covered by your usual JMP monthly subscription.  This will eventually be the default option for new users without a Jabber ID as part of our signup flow.

Many customers have asked us how they can use more than the included 120 voice minutes each month.  Starting soon, JMP will let you pay for as many minutes as you want, and along with this will be coming outbound calls to international destinations as well.  Note that users still paying with the old PayPal system will not be able to access more than the included 120 minutes or international calls, so now is a great time to make the switch.

We have already published what the initial calling rates will be, so go check that out to get an idea of costs.  Once the new pricing goes live, we will convert the 120-minute limit into a dollar equivalent that will give you 120 minutes to the USA and Canada, but will also allow you to use that included limit to cover international calls if you prefer (or a combination of both).

Speaking of costs, we know a concern for many people is getting billed for more overages than they can afford.  Of course, JMP being pre-pay helps with this a little, but if you want to pre-pay for many months and know you won’t accidentally burn up the credit, what can you do?  We have implemented a per-calendar-month overage limit system where you decide the limit.  The default for all customers is $0/month for now (so you would continue to pay the same amount every month, with no overages), but you can raise your limit using the plan settings command in your account settings so that you can take advantage of these upcoming features.

To learn what’s happening with JMP between newsletters, here are some ways you can find out:

• The chatroom remains the heart of the community.  You can also join from your web browser.
• The blog, where you may be reading this. Can also be followed in a client like Movim.
• The Lemmy Community
• The Subreddit
• On Twitter

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful rest of your week!