Not everything is a zeitgeist, Ian.
The first minute of every phone call is torture now
51–60 of 450 posts
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
And there are more being created all the time!
Yeah, but new old people bring their habits from younger years like not using phone for making private calls.
You'll need a few years yet for that. Most old people around today used rotary phones unironically.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#53Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails. It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. If call metadata included a subject line, software could automatically screen out calls where the subject is empty or spammy, just like with email. It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, sh…
I like the idea, but it will never take off. People are fundamentally lazy when it comes to these things. Look at the surging popularity of voice messages in some circles, shifting the burden of communication fully to the receiver. Even if you had the feature, I'd wager most subject lines would stay empty, or just contain the bare minimum like "hi".
But if other people are lazy, why would I entertain interruptions from them? I generally don’t do any work voice or video calls because, simply, they are an interruption. So they need to have an agenda and be scheduled. And indeed, I do not listen to voice messages; type it out or don’t send it at all.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#54I can't remember the last time i actually held a phone to my ear... I always always have a bluetooth headset/car around.
these days I wear an AfterShokz "bone conducting" headset pretty much as soon as I get up in the morning till i go to bed.
I listen to podcasts/audiobooks/music and make calls on it all day... no issues.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#55Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails. It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. If call metadata included a subject line, software could automatically screen out calls where the subject is empty or spammy, just like with email. It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, sh…
I like the idea, but it will never take off. People are fundamentally lazy when it comes to these things. Look at the surging popularity of voice messages in some circles, shifting the burden of communication fully to the receiver. Even if you had the feature, I'd wager most subject lines would stay empty, or just contain the bare minimum like "hi".
That’s ok. Metadata improves context but isn’t mandatory. Some people want it, others don’t bother.
It’s like sending a calendar invite. Sure, you can send an invite with nothing but your email address and a date+time. But many people would find an empty invite a bit rude. It’s just polite to include some context about the meeting. The phone call should evolve in that direction.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#56I don’t even pick up my phone anymore unless its from someone I know. Most calls are now just spam.
Audio quality on most calls is also atrocious. I have to keep the phone glued to my ear and walk out to a quiet room to even hear anything.
Email and phone, I hate to say it, are dying. And spam is the culprit in both cases.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#57There needs to be a Big(O) table for UX. Number of user interactions and decisions to get to each functionality in each screen size. Then comes prioritization. You can only fit so many buttons and boxes close to the hottest zones of user interaction, especially on Mobile, and even less of them in advertising-powered products.
When someone prioritizes the wrong use case on premium real estate and pushes back buttons that matter to you more, that only gets worse over time - your needs are not their priority.
That is why on mobile at least the giants are not always giant enough to squish competition entirely - one can always provide a better UX than Facebook or Google with a small but focused app that works for your problem better. The real damage to competition comes from device apis that put UX overhead to use cases you serve bette than them, but then give their apps with the same use case UX priority in their next release.
Just like data and code, complexity increases for UX with each added user story and use case, but the screen space remains the same.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#58Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails. It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. If call metadata included a subject line, software could automatically screen out calls where the subject is empty or spammy, just like with email. It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, sh…
> It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. It's a _phone_. Phone calls are it's primary function. If you don't want that, wouldn't a pad be a better option than a phone? Besides, how would you handle calls from landlines and such?
>Besides, how would you handle calls from landlines and such?
Direct to voicemail, of course, with a message saying 'text me' for automatic transcription. As they say, its a feature not a bug [to not be interrupted]. In a perfect world I'd have a secretary or AI to screen calls on my behalf, but I don't.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#59Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails. It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. If call metadata included a subject line, software could automatically screen out calls where the subject is empty or spammy, just like with email. It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, sh…
"It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, should I panic?!” It also removes the need to leave rambling voicemail." Well, what is stopping your wife from also texting you, if it was something important and she did not reach you? And what would force her, to use a potential subject line? Otherwise it is an interesting idea, but I doubt it will b…
I used to have a phone with DND but if the same caller tried twice in a couple of minutes then it would ring.
Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now
#60Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails. It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context. If call metadata included a subject line, software could automatically screen out calls where the subject is empty or spammy, just like with email. It would be very helpful for missed calls. “Why did my wife call twice in the last 5 minutes, did something happen, sh…
Phone calls from unknown numbers go straight to voice mail. Same for some people who think it’s fair game to call me and bore my ears off with their life whilst I am working.
Problem solved.