People who send voice messages &£@ off

I’m completely in agreement.

My nephew has learning difficulties he struggles with words/texting. We do voice messages/notes !!

He’s got a good reason though.

Anyone else that does it will be against the wall come the revolution

I sat beside a guy at work in a van who had an argument with his missus via voice note. It was quite funny, especially listening to him apologize.

Other than. That they can do one (except in situations like plus-one's)

It's still one step better than people who leave answer phone messages. Seriously, it's not 1994 any more!

Listening to a voice message is one thing, having to dial the voicemail, go through the whole "welcome to your EE voicemail..."

🤬

Yep - does my nut in too. Those that do it have a unique ability to make the same amount of information that I could squeeze into 200 characters last 3 and a half minutes.

You want to talk - call me. It's a feature they've had for a while! Then I can answer your question then and there, I can ask you questions and check I understand, we can debate - come to a decision together; almost like have an actual conversation - like the old days.

I've started sending team members voice messages at work. Sometimes it's quicker than typing out 500 words of instructions and / or firing up Zoom or Teams to tell them directly. This way, they can also relisten to the message at their leisure.

I had a mate who left them all the time.

This was slightly alleviates by discovering you can speed them up to 1.5x time.

Listening to her rabbeting like a chip munk whas cheery rather than tedious.

In Italy it seems to be the way to communicate.....

I guess it's preferably to trying to text whilst driving.

I can let it slip here because of their beautiful accent.

"I av-e said-de to se guys we ar going-ge  tomooro to d bike-e park. I want-e to ride-de di drop-pe"

GF had a client who would only send voice messages. Emphasis on <i> had </i>because she dropped them after a four or five voice messages

Just a random shamble of mumbling.

Old people often don't like the way that younger people communicate. It's all part of the aging process, grandad.

Does my head in too...

See also people who make hands free calls - if you don't have time to talk properly, then wait until you do, I just hang up on people now when I get loads of background noise of them clattering about doing whatever else they are doing at the same time as speaking to me.

Then you get the inevitable text - "line went dead, dunno what happened".

I then reply, "I know what happened, I hung up on you, you ignorant prick!"

One for the disproportionately cross thread?

I prefer voice messages to actual telephone conversations! At least I can listen to it when I'm ready, and/or without stopping what I'm doing, rather than getting irritated at having to drop everything in order to have a conversation I don't really want with someone who isn't there who then questions me why I'm sooooo irritated!

Total Boomer meltdowns on this thread.

Can you not just turn off the voicemail functionality if you don't like it?

Always hated the concept of them.
If it was worth speaking for then why not just pick up the phone. And I say this as someone who will actively avoid picking up the phone!

Then I actually had to communicate with someone who uses them. I'm not a full convert, but I get it a bit now. I only recently found out I have adhd and honestly it could sometimes take me multiple attempts to digest the content of a message saying more than one thing. And if I remember to reply, typing that out could take ages because I would need to check and triple check the tone.

Voice messages? No such issue. Can see how long a message is before I start listening**, can keep any replies suitably concise. It works.

**and if the message is over two minutes I probably just wont start...

OP should have posted to the '...disproportionately cross' thread but then the post wouldn't have attracted any interest.

I receive voice messages, emails, texts, WhatsApp messages; they are all communications - the medium is irrelevant.

Listen or read as required then either action or ignore as appropriate.

It's not difficult.

Total Boomer meltdowns on this thread.

There is quite a lot of research that the youngest generations are losing confidence actually talking to people and are developing anxiety issues around two way conversations. Proving quite the issue in some industries.  So I'd say this is less of a boomer issue and more of an issue of younguns becoming total melts.

This was slightly alleviates by discovering you can speed them up to 1.5x time.

Allegedly, you could do the same with the STW megasack (“megasack!”) videos. Or so I heard.

What's the difference between the background noise in a normal call and hands free?

Also voice messages are easier than ****ing about with a touch keyboard.

A mate has something set up on his phone so he can do WhatsApp voice notes to his missus when he's driving without having to touch the phone - seems a good way of doing it to me. Sure as hell safer than typing

I only ever do hands free (loud speaker) phone calls for work calls these days. I work from home on my own so not pissing anyone else off but it totally frees me up to carry on working whilst speaking and saves having a phone against my ear half the day.

+1 for turning voicemail off on mobiles.

If texts, email, or WhatsApp won't do it then just call back.

I hate it as well.  A text message will come upon my Garmin while I'm out riding so I don't need to stop.  A voice message I haven't any idea if it's important or not so will probably just ignore it but it will bug me

It’s still one step better than people who leave answer phone messages. Seriously, it’s not 1994 any more!

Listening to a voice message is one thing, having to dial the voicemail, go through the whole “welcome to your EE voicemail…”

One for the disproportionately cross thread?

... is what I was thinking also.

My pet peeve is people who listen your voicemail greeting and wait for the beep before hanging up. Why would you do that? Hang up or actually leave a message FFS. It doesn't help that retrieving them is like molasses.

You have...
four...
new voicemails.

"sigh" *click*

[size=26]ARGH![/size]

**and if the message is over two minutes I probably just wont start…

That's almost always a pocket dial IME.

What’s the difference between the background noise in a normal call and hands free?

Noise cancelling. (Most?) modern smartphones have a separate microphone on the back that they use to remove that noise from what the main one on the front one is hearing.

I only ever do hands free (loud speaker) phone calls for work calls these days.

It’s very rare I’ll get a call if I’m driving, in fact I think I’ve had one in the last three years. That was last week, and I answered because it was a business I’d just left asking for my car registration, so they can get the VIN in order to see if they can get the OEM front parking sensors, module and loom linkage for my Ford. I’m having a couple of paint repairs done and that can be included while it’s in the shop.

That took less than two minutes.

Oh by the way, for those not quite getting it people are talking about voice notes like the ones you send in WhatsApp (it's like a telegram but you can write them on your phone and you don't get charged for someone to read it to you personally), not answering machine messages.

A mate has something set up on his phone so he can do WhatsApp voice notes to his missus when he’s driving without having to touch the phone

Google assistant most likely. Press voice prompt button and away you go.

Total Boomer meltdown indeed.

Total Boomer meltdown

Dear child,

Get in the sea, lol!  😉

Send me an email if you have something technical or complicated to think about, don't be bothering me with rambling, incoherent and meandering audio messages, I will just delete them.

Kind regards,

Gen-X

It’s how everyone in China communicates. I was there for two weeks before Christmas and the guy who reports to me would have regular conversations with his wife via voice notes, whilst driving.

made me quite nervous and, less importantly, a proper conversation would have sorted their spat much quicker!

Everyone walks around with their phones held in front of their mouths, firing off voice notes. ****ing stupid.

Everyone walks around with their phones held in front of their mouths, firing off voice notes. **** stupid.

Now there's a justification for the existence of the 50cal Barret sniper rifle, if ever I've heared one!

Bloody phone zombies.

Somehow it’s worse, to me, than those endlessly scrolling through the web.

It’s just a grim way to communicate for those without a genuine reason, such as the point made earlier on.

I find it amusing when people leave a voicemail and recite their phone number. You don’t need to, we’re living in the future. My phone has a log and a missed calls list.

Everyone walks around with their phones held in front of their mouths, firing off voice notes. **** stupid.

See also Sheffield city centre. Hundreds of Chinese students walking around glued to their phones stepping out in front of trams, cars, bikes, walking in a straight line across busy junctions etc.

Total Boomer meltdown

That's not totally true - some of them will be Spectrum-ists...

That’s almost always a pocket dial IME.

Not my experience. I've one friend and another work colleague who both leave 3-4 min messages regularly. Of almost zero consequence usually. They've not been caught on the hop - they initiated leaving the message at a time and a place of their choosing but don't seem to have thought through what they are going to say before they start - it's just a stream of (vague) consciousness. Normally ended with a 'oh, but I've been rambling on for ages and I need to get on'.....you and me both! If they'd just spent 30 secs thinking before they started talking it would have saved me 2-3 minutes of listening to rambling shite. That's the selfishness aspect in my mind - you value my time so little you are not prepared to use a little of your time to get your thoughts together so you can be concise.

I'm not totally against the idea, it's the shite execution that annoys me and as the OP says, a total disregard for the time of the recipient. It also backfires on the sender - I'm often not in a position to listen for 4 mins so I leave it. It might take me 3 or 4 days to get around to it, or often forget entirely. Latest one was from someone who fancied coming out on a group paddle - didn't bother listening until long after the event. If he'd left a quick WhatsApp he'd have been invited along.

Cougar, please get visual voicemail. You don’t need to be dealing with answer phone messages like it’s the 90s.

a total disregard for the time of the recipient

This is the key thing with voice notes. “They save me time”… if you’re doing this at work, you’re just using up the recipients’ time because you think your time is more important than their time. Do this… dictate your message to your phone… read the words… delete all the bits no one needs to hear… then send as text that can be scanned and consumed in a fraction of the time you spent dictating and editing it.

@crazylegs and @cougar as above there are apps that you can use to replace your network voicemail. When someone leaves a message it gets downloaded to your phone for you to play at your leisure (or transcribed if that's your preference).

It’s how everyone in China communicates.

Ah, that would explain why the only person who does it to me, and it's almost always the only way she messages me, is Mrs Wang my qiqong teacher from mainland China.

And yes it does mildly irritate me as it suggests that it's too much effort to write me a message.

Am I the only person here who has never recieved one of these new fangled voice notes?

I turned voicemail off on my phone years ago

I find it amusing when people leave a voicemail and recite their phone number. You don’t need to, we’re living in the future. My phone has a log and a missed calls list.

My Dad (the one person I know who still calls from a landline and leaves a voicemail) does this.

Hi, it's Dad [yes, I know, my missed calls log says "Dad"...], it's err... about 4pm on Saturday [yes, I know, my missed calls log tells me that too!], just calling to say hi....

Honestly, just ring. If I don't answer, I'll see the missed call at some point and call you back. Don't waste everyone's time with a rambling voicemail!
🤷🏻‍♂️

I sent one recently and having found out how I'll be using it more

1/ I'm not a fast texter, talking is easier. I often use voice to text function but I feel conspicuous doing that in public places.

2/ I was travelling north to meet my daughter and grab some food / go to a gig. I'd checked traffic before and texted to say I'd be there about half six.

3/ There was an accident and my traffic told me that journey was now 30 mins longer

4/ She was in a lecture and then was rushing to get home to pick up her boyfriend and get on the road - I couldn't call her.

5/ I was driving, I could have waited till the next services, pulled off and sent a text and then restarted but then I'd have been even later and potentially she'd have rushed around and not got the new eta before leaving anyway.

6/ By using the voice message app i could tell her not to rush, I was going to be 30 mins later, not need to call her, not need to break the law by texting.

7/ She thinks her 55 year old Dad is tech savvy. Wins all round.

8/ In reality I was trying to use speech to text, pressed the wrong icon, sent a voice message by mistake and all the benefits were by chance 😉  In fact I'm even less tech savvy than we both thought. But don't tell anyone.

Sent my first one yesterday.

We had left the hotel for a quick walk before going to the beach. My wife spent 5 minutes doing a WA message to out daughter to say what we were doing - by the time she had finished we were miles out of the hotel WiFi range so she couldn't send it.

It took me about 10 seconds to put the same I do in a voice message and send it via my local SIM card.

Seems like a decent alternative for certain occasions and is used a lot by Dubai taxi drivers!

So did you express your preferred communication style to the sender OP?

Or just moan about it on a cycling forum?

I don't get the hate. Nice to hear someone's voice.