AT&T Finally Introduces The Real-Time Text Service
By Manny Reyes
AT&T has officially unveiled the Real-time Text (RTT) communications service for those who have difficulty in hearing or speaking in a bid to replace the legacy teletype (TTY) method for persons with disabilities. For those who are not familiar with TTY, it is an accessibility solution that is intended to help those with hearing limitations type their message in the phone keyboard in order to communicate. The RTT, meanwhile, is a communication solution based on text that aims to convey to the audibly challenged many services that TTY apparently failed to deliver, including the limited selection of device-generated characters and its relatively slow performance. In contrast, RTT sends and receives each text character in near real time, which means texts can flow as quickly as voice communication without the need for conversations to take turns.