5 ms·

The true way to impose your will on others is to set music ringbacks (the sound the caller hears while they wait for you to pick up). Still popular in India and

by z2 1y ago

The true way to impose your will on others is to set music ringbacks (the sound the caller hears while they wait for you to pick up). Still popular in India and China, I hear.

RankingMember 1y ago
I had no idea this was even something you could customize.
- quesera 1y ago
  It isn't! Maybe it is in China and India, though. I shudder to contemplate the complexity of that switching system, but ... astonishment awaits..?
  - chucksta 1y ago
    It certainly was in the US, they were called ring back tones https://www.vice.com/en/article/remember-when-you-called-someone-and-heard-a-song-ringback-tones/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/remember-when-you-called-som...
    - quesera 1y ago
      Well OK, astonished then! I think there has to be some dramatic oversimplification in the description though. Telecom signaling is still a network level event, even in mobile networks. The receiving network does not typically provide audio to the caller until the call is complete. But hey, what a terrible idea! I'm glad to have been old enough in that period (2004-2008) that no one I knew would foist such a thing on a caller.
      - jagged-chisel 1y ago
        The receiving network “connects” the call and starts providing audio.
      - toast0 1y ago
        The telcom keyword is 'early media'. Audio before the call is answered and billing starts.
- c22 1y ago
  It's just hold music and forking the call at a switch. You can do it yourself with two extra lines and a pbx.
  - toast0 1y ago
    If done correctly, the call doesn't count as connected while it's ringing. 'Early media' aka 'late billing' Not that it makes a big difference anymore when most people are on unmetered calling.
- jonathanlydall 1y ago
  I’ve encountered it here in South Africa too, it’s a service provider “feature”, in no way controlled by your phone. It’s been many years since I’ve encountered it, but was quite scummy because while you’re waiting for the other person to pick up, you’d hear some music and then a voice over saying to press a number now to add it to your own number, for a recurring fee of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the people paying for it didn’t intentionally “sign up”, but are just not educated enough to understand what happened or notice their prepaid credit being slowly whittled away by rubbish like this. The amount of worthless “value added services” pushed onto the poorest here by cellphone service providers is sickening.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  Many European operators offer this as well, or used to at least.
pluc 1y ago
You used to be able to do this in Canada, for a fee. Back when carriers tried to milk their customers for every customization possible. They've since learned they can do the same without bothering to offer anything in return.
fph 1y ago
I wish I could impose callers a "ringback captcha": if you want my phone to ring, you have to solve this challenge to prove that you are human.
- m463 1y ago
  It would be nice to just have an extension. like "at the tone press 42 to get through" except you don't need to provide the instructions, people know to do it.
- IncreasePosts 1y ago
  You can do that pretty easy with twilio. It would probably even be free or effectively free based on mere personal levels of calls.
- nytesky 1y ago
  Google voice screening is sort of like that.
  - fph 1y ago
    Unfortunately I'm one of those privacy-conscious people that would only accept this as a local app on my phone, without a surveillance capitalism giant being able to eavesdrop all my calls as a man-in-the-middle as a side effect.
    - nytesky 1y ago
      I only use my Google voice number for basically non-personal contacts, like my bank or shopping, etc. That way when you get an unknown call from a business, it will usually be coming from an unknown number and thus the screening will be in place. The screening on my personal phone is such that I will have any person that I expect to be calling already in my directory so that will be identifiable immediately
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

by z2 1y ago

The true way to impose your will on others is to set music ringbacks (the sound the caller hears while they wait for you to pick up). Still popular in India and China, I hear.

RankingMember 1y ago

I had no idea this was even something you could customize.

quesera 1y ago
It isn't! Maybe it is in China and India, though. I shudder to contemplate the complexity of that switching system, but ... astonishment awaits..?
- chucksta 1y ago
  It certainly was in the US, they were called ring back tones https://www.vice.com/en/article/remember-when-you-called-someone-and-heard-a-song-ringback-tones/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/remember-when-you-called-som...
  - quesera 1y ago
    Well OK, astonished then! I think there has to be some dramatic oversimplification in the description though. Telecom signaling is still a network level event, even in mobile networks. The receiving network does not typically provide audio to the caller until the call is complete. But hey, what a terrible idea! I'm glad to have been old enough in that period (2004-2008) that no one I knew would foist such a thing on a caller.
    - jagged-chisel 1y ago
      The receiving network “connects” the call and starts providing audio.
    - toast0 1y ago
      The telcom keyword is 'early media'. Audio before the call is answered and billing starts.
c22 1y ago
It's just hold music and forking the call at a switch. You can do it yourself with two extra lines and a pbx.
- toast0 1y ago
  If done correctly, the call doesn't count as connected while it's ringing. 'Early media' aka 'late billing' Not that it makes a big difference anymore when most people are on unmetered calling.
jonathanlydall 1y ago
I’ve encountered it here in South Africa too, it’s a service provider “feature”, in no way controlled by your phone. It’s been many years since I’ve encountered it, but was quite scummy because while you’re waiting for the other person to pick up, you’d hear some music and then a voice over saying to press a number now to add it to your own number, for a recurring fee of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the people paying for it didn’t intentionally “sign up”, but are just not educated enough to understand what happened or notice their prepaid credit being slowly whittled away by rubbish like this. The amount of worthless “value added services” pushed onto the poorest here by cellphone service providers is sickening.
pjmlp 1y ago
Many European operators offer this as well, or used to at least.

pluc 1y ago

You used to be able to do this in Canada, for a fee. Back when carriers tried to milk their customers for every customization possible. They've since learned they can do the same without bothering to offer anything in return.

fph 1y ago

I wish I could impose callers a "ringback captcha": if you want my phone to ring, you have to solve this challenge to prove that you are human.

m463 1y ago
It would be nice to just have an extension. like "at the tone press 42 to get through" except you don't need to provide the instructions, people know to do it.
IncreasePosts 1y ago
You can do that pretty easy with twilio. It would probably even be free or effectively free based on mere personal levels of calls.
nytesky 1y ago
Google voice screening is sort of like that.
- fph 1y ago
  Unfortunately I'm one of those privacy-conscious people that would only accept this as a local app on my phone, without a surveillance capitalism giant being able to eavesdrop all my calls as a man-in-the-middle as a side effect.
  - nytesky 1y ago
    I only use my Google voice number for basically non-personal contacts, like my bank or shopping, etc. That way when you get an unknown call from a business, it will usually be coming from an unknown number and thus the screening will be in place. The screening on my personal phone is such that I will have any person that I expect to be calling already in my directory so that will be identifiable immediately

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]