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Oh, I just got rid of voicemail all together. Just let it ring, then drop, if I don't know it. My friend used the Off-Hook tone [0] as th initial sound on thei

Oh, I just got rid of voicemail all together. Just let it ring, then drop, if I don't know it. My friend used the Off-Hook tone [0] as th initial sound on their voicemail, then followed by them actually leaving an invation to leave a message. It seemed for a while there that the robocall would just interpert the off-hook tone as a dead number and not wait the 3 seconds. But then they started waiting until the line dropped and that trick stopped working. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-hook_tone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-hook_tone

criddell 7y ago
I'd like voicemail only for people in my address book. It feels like there are so many easy ways to make the phone app better yet nothing ever seems to change with it. My phone is in my pocket now instead of on my desk, but it's basically the same thing I had in 1982. Why is there so little innovation around the telephone and voice calls?
- CamperBob2 7y ago
  Why is there so little innovation around the telephone and voice calls? I imagine patent trolls are to thank for this state of affairs, along with the system that enables them. I don't have any evidence of that, though.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Well, one reason might be that people who are not in your address book--who you can otherwise easily "Do Not Disturb"--may be emergency calls related to people you know but the originators, e.g. police/hospital are not in your contacts list. Those are more or less exactly the sort of calls I want to be able to leave a voicemail even if I don't otherwise process their call. Unfortunately, it means I get various voicemails threatening to delete my SSN or that police are coming to arrest me. But, other than making it harder for scammers, I'm not sure what the fix is other than basically switching your phone to a pure whitelist system.
  - criddell 7y ago
    You're agreeing with me, I think. There's a ton of innovation possible with the phone app that isn't happening. There's no reason there couldn't be curated white lists that you subscribe to for stuff like that.

criddell 7y ago

I'd like voicemail only for people in my address book. It feels like there are so many easy ways to make the phone app better yet nothing ever seems to change with it. My phone is in my pocket now instead of on my desk, but it's basically the same thing I had in 1982. Why is there so little innovation around the telephone and voice calls?

CamperBob2 7y ago
Why is there so little innovation around the telephone and voice calls? I imagine patent trolls are to thank for this state of affairs, along with the system that enables them. I don't have any evidence of that, though.
ghaff 7y ago
Well, one reason might be that people who are not in your address book--who you can otherwise easily "Do Not Disturb"--may be emergency calls related to people you know but the originators, e.g. police/hospital are not in your contacts list. Those are more or less exactly the sort of calls I want to be able to leave a voicemail even if I don't otherwise process their call. Unfortunately, it means I get various voicemails threatening to delete my SSN or that police are coming to arrest me. But, other than making it harder for scammers, I'm not sure what the fix is other than basically switching your phone to a pure whitelist system.
- criddell 7y ago
  You're agreeing with me, I think. There's a ton of innovation possible with the phone app that isn't happening. There's no reason there couldn't be curated white lists that you subscribe to for stuff like that.