6 ms·

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those th

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last night I was driving to the hospital to visit a friend and called another friend to let him know the status of my sick friend. I left a voicemail and it was the best solution. I've noticed that the texting only generation seems to have anxiety about making or receiving phone calls and the real-time conversation that requires. I think some of the voicemail hate is just a reaction to that discomfort.

encoderer 12y ago
Anxiety? Maybe. But possibly just annoyance?
- mcculley 12y ago
  I've definitely encountered both. Having someone fail to pick up the phone to resolve an issue is frustrating. Sometimes that's the best solution.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Sure, one could merely be annoyed by having to speak in real-time with people with whom one wants or needs to communicate somehow. But others are likely to find that annoyance strange, so that such a preference (or the exposure of it) is likely to also be a source of anxiety.
- wpietri 12y ago
  I'm sure it's both. For me, I've never liked how interruptive and demanding phone calls are. I would never barge into somebody's home and immediately insist on attention no matter what they were doing. But ringing phones are like that. So I definitely notice some politeness-related anxiety when I call people. I also notice a little bit of stage fright with both phone calls and voicemails. Phones rob you of almost all the in-person feedback that lets you judge reaction. And they also don't allow the sort of self-checking and self-editing that text messages and email do. Once you say something dumb or get caught in an awkward pause, it's just out there. Neither really bothers me, I happily call people and leave voicemails as needed. But I definitely notice the feelings.
  - aswanson 12y ago
    Right, re: demanding/interrupting. That's the main thing I hate about cell phones; people expect you to be on-call at all times and express anger when you aren't; the only excuse being that I was driving or didnt hear it. When in reality I just didnt feel like answering the phone and talking.
malka 12y ago
personally, i find the absence of feedback when talking to the voicemail to be a little unsettling. I have trouble expressing my thoughts when leaving a voicemail, and I usually ends up texting the person instead. I'm 28 btw
- wpietri 12y ago
  I'm 45, and I definitely notice those feelings despite having grown up with answering machines and voicemail. Composing a text is slightly more work than just blabbing away. But I think it's so much nicer for the recipient that I'd much rather text than leave a voicemail.
r00fus 12y ago
90% of the time when I call, I know there are alternative methods to reach my contact (either a mobile number if I calling a desk or vice-versa, or email, or if I know it's a work mobile, I'll freely SMS my contact) Leaving a voicemail is a last ditch effort, that often results in some feeling of action being taken on my part, that could very well sit un-listened for weeks or forever. I try very hard to not leave voicemail without essentially transcribing what I left as an email as well. It's a trap.
kmfrk 12y ago
Also depends on the voicemail interface; American iOS users get a fancy voicemail interface in most cases, whereas many of us elsewhere have to go through pure voice and dial, which takes forever.
- tracker1 12y ago
  If you have an Android phone, setup google voice... Either install the GV app, or install Hangouts Dialer, then request an inbound number. It gives you integrated voicemail, with automated (though sometimes bad) transcription. It makes dealing with VM as easy as SMS, and if it came from a cell, you can reply with SMS right there. The hangouts integration has gotten better as well. I've been using it since it grand central before google bought it... There are other similar services as well.
hapless 12y ago
I haven't listened to my voicemail in probably two years. In the age of caller ID, what's the point ? I can see that you called me, and call back.
- dandrews 12y ago
  CLID is trivially spoofed; indeed there are CRM vendors that will do that for your sales force. Telco should fix CLID.
  - seynb 12y ago
    The problem is that "Telco" hasn't existed (at least in the USA) since divestiture of Bell System. Tariffed services include access to the PSTN as in terms of trunk lines (esp. PRIs), which allow end users to control call appearance including specification of the originating Directory Number (DN) that is passed in the SS7 call setup message (ISUP). It is even easier with SIP trunks. This is a problem similar to DNS spoofing. Often a large organisation will have an 8xx number (toll-free) which they wish to appear for CLID on all outgoing calls from every line, every office. How do you validate whether the toll-free (or whatever) CLID number passed is correspondent with the actual number of the OUTWATS trunk (or SIP trunk) used by a given caller? Trunk lines need not necessarily have a DN assigned to them if they are purely for outgoing service. You would need to setup facilities to "sign" each originating call with a cryptographic certificate assigned to the owner of the number passed and then equipment on each terminating set to validate this. This is an extremely non-trivial proposition.
    - dandrews 12y ago
      Telco (FSVO "telco") may well not be able to fix CLID, broken as it may be - they can replace it for all the good it does. But it's always aggravated me that they can provide ANI to 8xx customers. Way different service I'll grant.
- cdcarter 12y ago
  Many people refuse to call back numbers that are unknown to them. Others (myself) tend not to call back on a missed call without a voicemail or a text. I assume if you just call and leave no message, you'll reach out to me another way or it was just asking what was up.
jeffasinger 12y ago
When I have other ways to contact someone, I feel like leaving a voicemail is slightly inconsiderate, as it is the mode of asynchronous communication that requires the most effort from the receiver. It's much easier for them to see that they have a missed call from me, or see a text message to see what the call was about, or to read a quick email rather than listen to a voicemail.
- jimbobimbo 12y ago
  There's nothing inconsiderate about it. I'm not returning calls from the numbers I don't know, unless they leave a VM. Since there's visual VM, it's easy to delete VMs mid-sentence too, so I don't have to sit through the sales message either.
gadders 12y ago
I'm 43 and I hate voicemail. It just takes so long to get the information. Dial a number, wait for connection, press more buttons, find a pen and paper to write down any important bits of the message etc. Just send me the info in written form.
- jerrysievert 12y ago
  worse yet are voicemail systems such as Lync that try to transcribe it for you - no need to look for pen and paper, because it's just gibberish most of the time. when I see a Lync "voicemail" message, it means that I email the sender and ask what they want.
- cdr 12y ago
  "Visual voicemail" moved me from strong dislike to being mostly OK with it. At most it usually requires tapping my phone twice - open app, play message. Still need to potentially transcribe, I guess, but there's too many people and places that will never switch to texting anytime soon.
01Michael10 12y ago
I am 45 and hate my voicemail at work but normally don't text anyone outside of my IT department. A solution may be a Google Voice type service for businesses. It would be so much easier to get voicemails in my email that are already dictated so have an idea what they are about and just "click" play if needed. One won't have to pick up the phone, type their password, and listen to each message. It's 2014 (almost 2015)!
DanBC 12y ago
I'm 45. I prefer sms texts or emails to voicemail. I prefer sms texts or email to actuL voice calls too - it's just easier to share information. Of course sometimes phone calls are for just chatting and voicemails fail for that too. Currently iMessages are causing considerable problems with silent fails and no option to send as SMS (which they used to have - not sure why that changed). All the other messaging solutions have some fairly big flaws too. Also: i really really fucking hate the way I'll get a notification with a partial message, and then have to open the app to read the message. Opening the app to read the message has a delay of maybe a minute before the message downloads - why? Why can they show me a preview in a notification and then take an age to give me that same text in their app? This is particularly bad with Facebook's messenger app (so bad I'm tempted to delete the app and leave different contact details on FB) but als happens on Whatsapp and others.
- MarkSweep 12y ago
  The "send as SMS option is now hidden. If message you sent does not say "Delivered" under it, you can press and hold your message. There will be a "Sens as SMS" option in the context menu.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    No, this does not work. I get [copy][more]. Selecting more just leads to a select & delete dialog, with no ability to send as SMS. This is to a contact where I had previously sent messages as SMS before.
- mcculley 12y ago
  I also prefer SMS and email, for most conversations. I'm just surprised so many state that they would rather force someone else to send an SMS or email because they hate voicemail so much.
  - unepipe 12y ago
    No one is being forced to send a message. If it feels like a big burden to type up 140 chars or a few lines of an email to send a message, maybe that message isn't important enough to bother someone with. (talking internal business here, not personal or external) The reason I dislike voicemail for internal business - not sales, support, biz dev or personal calls - is because it often implies that a call wasn't planned, which means that someone wants you to make decisions on the fly or they think that your time can be interrupted whenever they feel like it. Of course there are a thousand exceptions to this - but I prefer other means of communication for internal business interactions.
tootie 12y ago
I'm near your age. Voice mail is slow and imprecise compared to text. If someone has a callback number I have replay it 2 or 3 times to get it written down assuming I can hear them clearly. Text is clear and unambiguous. If you want to talk in real time, let's use video. This is why I haven't had a phone in my house or at my desk for 2 years.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- tracker1 12y ago
  I've been using Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) for my primary contact number for years. The integration with hangouts is mostly complete now, and not a bad way to interact. I can check my voicemail via my computer or an app on my phone. They also transcribe the voicemails, as well as offering blackout times, and buckets for different calling numbers. If it's from a cell phone, I can directly reply via text. During the day, at work, I pretty much ignore my phone, and send all calls to voicemail... being able to quickly see and reply is useful (though sometimes the transcriptions are particularly bad). There are/were other similar services to this out there, not sure what's available in the UK, but you may want to look into it.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    You missed the part where voicemails are emailed to you transcribed, integrating nicely with Gmail. All of my voicemails are in Gmail, which is perfect for Inbox Zero GTD.
    - tracker1 12y ago
      Yes, forgot to mention that option, as I don't use it... I've pretty much gotten used to the Hangouts integration at this point.. except the outbound dialing, it's gotten very decent. Hopefully they clear up a few of the dangling quirks.

encoderer 12y ago

Anxiety? Maybe. But possibly just annoyance?

mcculley 12y ago
I've definitely encountered both. Having someone fail to pick up the phone to resolve an issue is frustrating. Sometimes that's the best solution.
jessaustin 12y ago
Sure, one could merely be annoyed by having to speak in real-time with people with whom one wants or needs to communicate somehow. But others are likely to find that annoyance strange, so that such a preference (or the exposure of it) is likely to also be a source of anxiety.
wpietri 12y ago
I'm sure it's both. For me, I've never liked how interruptive and demanding phone calls are. I would never barge into somebody's home and immediately insist on attention no matter what they were doing. But ringing phones are like that. So I definitely notice some politeness-related anxiety when I call people. I also notice a little bit of stage fright with both phone calls and voicemails. Phones rob you of almost all the in-person feedback that lets you judge reaction. And they also don't allow the sort of self-checking and self-editing that text messages and email do. Once you say something dumb or get caught in an awkward pause, it's just out there. Neither really bothers me, I happily call people and leave voicemails as needed. But I definitely notice the feelings.
- aswanson 12y ago
  Right, re: demanding/interrupting. That's the main thing I hate about cell phones; people expect you to be on-call at all times and express anger when you aren't; the only excuse being that I was driving or didnt hear it. When in reality I just didnt feel like answering the phone and talking.

malka 12y ago

personally, i find the absence of feedback when talking to the voicemail to be a little unsettling. I have trouble expressing my thoughts when leaving a voicemail, and I usually ends up texting the person instead. I'm 28 btw

wpietri 12y ago
I'm 45, and I definitely notice those feelings despite having grown up with answering machines and voicemail. Composing a text is slightly more work than just blabbing away. But I think it's so much nicer for the recipient that I'd much rather text than leave a voicemail.

r00fus 12y ago

90% of the time when I call, I know there are alternative methods to reach my contact (either a mobile number if I calling a desk or vice-versa, or email, or if I know it's a work mobile, I'll freely SMS my contact) Leaving a voicemail is a last ditch effort, that often results in some feeling of action being taken on my part, that could very well sit un-listened for weeks or forever. I try very hard to not leave voicemail without essentially transcribing what I left as an email as well. It's a trap.

kmfrk 12y ago

Also depends on the voicemail interface; American iOS users get a fancy voicemail interface in most cases, whereas many of us elsewhere have to go through pure voice and dial, which takes forever.

tracker1 12y ago
If you have an Android phone, setup google voice... Either install the GV app, or install Hangouts Dialer, then request an inbound number. It gives you integrated voicemail, with automated (though sometimes bad) transcription. It makes dealing with VM as easy as SMS, and if it came from a cell, you can reply with SMS right there. The hangouts integration has gotten better as well. I've been using it since it grand central before google bought it... There are other similar services as well.

hapless 12y ago

I haven't listened to my voicemail in probably two years. In the age of caller ID, what's the point ? I can see that you called me, and call back.

dandrews 12y ago
CLID is trivially spoofed; indeed there are CRM vendors that will do that for your sales force. Telco should fix CLID.
- seynb 12y ago
  The problem is that "Telco" hasn't existed (at least in the USA) since divestiture of Bell System. Tariffed services include access to the PSTN as in terms of trunk lines (esp. PRIs), which allow end users to control call appearance including specification of the originating Directory Number (DN) that is passed in the SS7 call setup message (ISUP). It is even easier with SIP trunks. This is a problem similar to DNS spoofing. Often a large organisation will have an 8xx number (toll-free) which they wish to appear for CLID on all outgoing calls from every line, every office. How do you validate whether the toll-free (or whatever) CLID number passed is correspondent with the actual number of the OUTWATS trunk (or SIP trunk) used by a given caller? Trunk lines need not necessarily have a DN assigned to them if they are purely for outgoing service. You would need to setup facilities to "sign" each originating call with a cryptographic certificate assigned to the owner of the number passed and then equipment on each terminating set to validate this. This is an extremely non-trivial proposition.
  - dandrews 12y ago
    Telco (FSVO "telco") may well not be able to fix CLID, broken as it may be - they can replace it for all the good it does. But it's always aggravated me that they can provide ANI to 8xx customers. Way different service I'll grant.
cdcarter 12y ago
Many people refuse to call back numbers that are unknown to them. Others (myself) tend not to call back on a missed call without a voicemail or a text. I assume if you just call and leave no message, you'll reach out to me another way or it was just asking what was up.

jeffasinger 12y ago

When I have other ways to contact someone, I feel like leaving a voicemail is slightly inconsiderate, as it is the mode of asynchronous communication that requires the most effort from the receiver. It's much easier for them to see that they have a missed call from me, or see a text message to see what the call was about, or to read a quick email rather than listen to a voicemail.

jimbobimbo 12y ago
There's nothing inconsiderate about it. I'm not returning calls from the numbers I don't know, unless they leave a VM. Since there's visual VM, it's easy to delete VMs mid-sentence too, so I don't have to sit through the sales message either.

gadders 12y ago

I'm 43 and I hate voicemail. It just takes so long to get the information. Dial a number, wait for connection, press more buttons, find a pen and paper to write down any important bits of the message etc. Just send me the info in written form.

jerrysievert 12y ago
worse yet are voicemail systems such as Lync that try to transcribe it for you - no need to look for pen and paper, because it's just gibberish most of the time. when I see a Lync "voicemail" message, it means that I email the sender and ask what they want.
cdr 12y ago
"Visual voicemail" moved me from strong dislike to being mostly OK with it. At most it usually requires tapping my phone twice - open app, play message. Still need to potentially transcribe, I guess, but there's too many people and places that will never switch to texting anytime soon.

01Michael10 12y ago

I am 45 and hate my voicemail at work but normally don't text anyone outside of my IT department. A solution may be a Google Voice type service for businesses. It would be so much easier to get voicemails in my email that are already dictated so have an idea what they are about and just "click" play if needed. One won't have to pick up the phone, type their password, and listen to each message. It's 2014 (almost 2015)!

DanBC 12y ago

I'm 45. I prefer sms texts or emails to voicemail. I prefer sms texts or email to actuL voice calls too - it's just easier to share information. Of course sometimes phone calls are for just chatting and voicemails fail for that too. Currently iMessages are causing considerable problems with silent fails and no option to send as SMS (which they used to have - not sure why that changed). All the other messaging solutions have some fairly big flaws too. Also: i really really fucking hate the way I'll get a notification with a partial message, and then have to open the app to read the message. Opening the app to read the message has a delay of maybe a minute before the message downloads - why? Why can they show me a preview in a notification and then take an age to give me that same text in their app? This is particularly bad with Facebook's messenger app (so bad I'm tempted to delete the app and leave different contact details on FB) but als happens on Whatsapp and others.

MarkSweep 12y ago
The "send as SMS option is now hidden. If message you sent does not say "Delivered" under it, you can press and hold your message. There will be a "Sens as SMS" option in the context menu.
- DanBC 12y ago
  No, this does not work. I get [copy][more]. Selecting more just leads to a select & delete dialog, with no ability to send as SMS. This is to a contact where I had previously sent messages as SMS before.
mcculley 12y ago
I also prefer SMS and email, for most conversations. I'm just surprised so many state that they would rather force someone else to send an SMS or email because they hate voicemail so much.
- unepipe 12y ago
  No one is being forced to send a message. If it feels like a big burden to type up 140 chars or a few lines of an email to send a message, maybe that message isn't important enough to bother someone with. (talking internal business here, not personal or external) The reason I dislike voicemail for internal business - not sales, support, biz dev or personal calls - is because it often implies that a call wasn't planned, which means that someone wants you to make decisions on the fly or they think that your time can be interrupted whenever they feel like it. Of course there are a thousand exceptions to this - but I prefer other means of communication for internal business interactions.

tootie 12y ago

I'm near your age. Voice mail is slow and imprecise compared to text. If someone has a callback number I have replay it 2 or 3 times to get it written down assuming I can hear them clearly. Text is clear and unambiguous. If you want to talk in real time, let's use video. This is why I haven't had a phone in my house or at my desk for 2 years.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

tracker1 12y ago
I've been using Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) for my primary contact number for years. The integration with hangouts is mostly complete now, and not a bad way to interact. I can check my voicemail via my computer or an app on my phone. They also transcribe the voicemails, as well as offering blackout times, and buckets for different calling numbers. If it's from a cell phone, I can directly reply via text. During the day, at work, I pretty much ignore my phone, and send all calls to voicemail... being able to quickly see and reply is useful (though sometimes the transcriptions are particularly bad). There are/were other similar services to this out there, not sure what's available in the UK, but you may want to look into it.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  You missed the part where voicemails are emailed to you transcribed, integrating nicely with Gmail. All of my voicemails are in Gmail, which is perfect for Inbox Zero GTD.
  - tracker1 12y ago
    Yes, forgot to mention that option, as I don't use it... I've pretty much gotten used to the Hangouts integration at this point.. except the outbound dialing, it's gotten very decent. Hopefully they clear up a few of the dangling quirks.