My Watwet page

We’re still testing watwet in a limited manner, but it is already clear that not everyone understands how it can be used. There will be some changes on the interface to make it more obvious for first time users before we launch it.
But I though I could also write a post here to explain watwet’s functionality and usage a bit more.

Once you register for an account (which is FREE, but for now you need an invitation), you get your own watwet page. This page is like a mini-blog or diary where you can write updates (basically answering the question: What are you doing).

If you’re a Zain Jordan mobile user you are a very lucky person. You just go to the ‘Mobile and Email’ tab, enter your mobile number there. You will get an SMS message from watwet asking you to reply to verify your number.

Now things get pretty cool. You can update your watwet page by just sending an SMS to a 4 digit number. Say you’re at your favorite cafe enjoying a cup of Cappuccino, just send an SMS to the watwet number saying ‘At Costa City Mall drinking coffee’. Your watwet page will be automatically be updated with this message. You can even take a photo of your coffee and send it as an SMS to watwet for everyone to see.

But the REALLY COOL thing about watwet is that you can invite you friends to watwet. Once you have added them as friends on Watwet, they will receive your updates on their mobiles (and you will receive their updates).

Mind you, these messages are public (remember it’s like a blog).

So, back to the cafe example. Once you send that SMS message to your watwet page, all your friends will get notified on their phone. One of them might be nearby and join you for coffee! So if you have 10 friends on watwet, there is no need to send 10 separate SMS’s if you want to tell them something.

Or let’s say you’re looking for tickets for a concert, but can’t find any. Just send a message to watwet that says: “looking for Nancy Ajram tickets”. All you 10 (or even 100) friends will get this message on their mobiles. One of them might have an extra ticker for you.

You can share jokes, news or just updates about your life this way. Totally for free. You only pay for one regular SMS when you

If you have many friends and you’re getting too many messages from everyone, you can simply turn off SMS notification.

And you can also “whisper/washwish” to a specific friend (from your mobile or even the watwet web page).

As we gear up to open the service to everyone in Jordan (and especially Zain users), we’re happy to get as much feedback as possible).

I still have some invitations left. If you are interested to test watwet just leave me a comment here.


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17 responses to “How watwet works.. (hint: it’s also FREE!)”

  1. aseel Avatar
    aseel

    ok..one thing i just noticed..on the arabic homepage of the site…”english” is written in arabic :)

  2. Davis Avatar
    Davis

    Hey, I’m interested in getting a watwet account…
    Davis

    (I really enjoy your blog, by the way.)

  3. Khawaja M. Avatar
    Khawaja M.

    Thanks for inviting me :)

    btw, the no. is composed of 5 digits (97999).

  4. Sid Vicious Avatar
    Sid Vicious

    Me too, I want an invite please.

  5. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    I have a zain line, and I realise I actively send these updates, but I’m not sure why I would want everyone to know my whereabouts all the time. The cheer number of sms messages could get annoying.

    It also sounds like a kind of facebook clone with friends pages, and profiles. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  6. Malcolm Thomson Avatar
    Malcolm Thomson

    Hi Ahmad,

    Could be helpful if you pointed out the diffference between your new app and Twitter.

    Is it something you plan to ‘white label’? Is it in any way restricted to Jordan or the Middle East?

    Best regards,

    Malcolm in Abu Dhabi

  7. Rock Avatar
    Rock

    Is it going to be FREE for ever? Or…

  8. Rami Malkawi Avatar
    Rami Malkawi

    Hello, sure would love to try and see how it works, please send me an invi if you still have some.
    thxx

  9. Hameed Avatar
    Hameed

    Now that you put it this way it sounds interesting…

    If you still have invites left I am interested :)

  10. Nizar Avatar
    Nizar

    I love the idea, I wish we have something similar in Sweden

  11. Thaer Avatar
    Thaer

    I’d like an invitation please :)
    also, once i visited the website, i saw a flash demo playing, one of the slides showed the word “تدمن” maybe you guys would change the word to something else, i for one saw it and thought about it negatively

  12. Humeid Avatar
    Humeid

    Thanks for the feedback everyone.. I sent invitation to those who asked for one.

    Hani your feedback is quite valid.. it’s something we’re thinking about at the moment. But for now think of it as a blog.. you don’t put everything on a blog.

    One of the biggest questions we have concerns “followers”: people who follow your updates but who you have not accepted as friends. By the way, watwet allows you to stop people from following you and you can even block users. We’ll see how things unfold in our test period.

    Maclcom: The concept is very similar to twitter. Twitter has been a major inspiration for this product. But as I pointed out in the comments of a previous post, we added more detailed user profiles, ability to share photos through MMS, an Arabic interface, cool preset page designs..

    While it is open on the web for everyone, phone updates are restricted to Zain Jordan users (Zain is Jordan’s biggest mobile operator). We are working closely with Zain on this.

    I don’t think we’re ready to while label the service at the moment. We’re quite happy about the watwet brand ;-) (watwet mean chatter in some arabic dialects).

    Rock: Yes it will remain free!

    Thanks..

  13. Hafez Adnan Avatar
    Hafez Adnan

    hI Humaid, again another nice service from tootCorp, but using zain only as operators isn’t restrict the service, like in Jordan only you have 4 phone operators, so If I don’t have Zain mobile , Then I can’t use important feature which is updates using mobile. and if you thinking to distribute watwet as Arabic service Zain exist in 4 countries only (Jordan, Kwait, Sudan, ..). is not better to get Wireless service provider like vashouse or info2cell to serving the mobile updates( I know there are business issue but isn’t that bad for the service )

    again nice service and good luck

  14. Omar Avatar
    Omar

    Looks like a unique cool useful idea.
    I would love to have an Invitation

  15. Samer Farraj Avatar
    Samer Farraj

    Hi Ahmad,
    looks like a great tool. I would like to try it out.
    thanks
    samer

  16. lulu Avatar
    lulu

    do u still have some invatations?

  17. Samar Hijjawi Avatar
    Samar Hijjawi

    so you are creating a Jordanian facebook. i joined and it looks so cool.