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The first minute of every phone call is torture now

theatlantic.com

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Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#171

Post by ryandrake »

chrisseaton wrote: post #160
rchaud wrote: post #157

The article makes a great point early on: hearing voices over VOIP is markedly different than over analog phone lines. The robotic voice and the weird compression when your connection isn't good are common for me. Worst of all is the 0.5-1 second delay I still sometimes hear, on local calls no less! If the same call was being had over a phone line and we were in the same country, the audio fidelity would be excellent…

That's funny - my experience is digital is much clearer than an old analog line.

My observations, in order of decreasing quality:

Analog Land Line local call > WiFi Calling through cellphone > Analog long distance call > 3G/4G/5G Cell > Home VOIP service > Zoom/Meet/etc.

With the first two pretty close to identically high quality.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#172

Post by VBprogrammer »

I expected this to be about the now common pattern of subjecting people to some shit version of Alexa for 10 minutes before you eventually crack and allow them to sit on hold for someone who might actually be able to solve their problem.

Bonus shit biscuits if you allow them to get to some answer from Brenda (the brainless Alexa clone) where you basically say "great news, you can do this online". As if anyone with half a brain would have have been stupid enough to shout at their phone for 20 minutes trying to get your shitty arse robot to understand them if they could have gone online instead.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#173

Post by [deleted] »

pavlov wrote: post #22

Phone 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…

[deleted]

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#174

Post by wutbrodo »

gary_0 wrote: post #45
Markoff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not problem of a bezel, but either crappy software or bad sensor, never happened to me through 11+ years of using Android phones with touch screen. Better choose decent phone next time, mind sharing what phone causes you this trouble?

Samsung Galaxy S10e (with recent software). It wasn't cheap. And all my previous Android phones were fine too, but this one only has the little hole in the screen for the camera. There is no sensor.

Huh, I just switched out my s10e after a few years and I never had this issue. It didn't even occur to me that the face-detection method had changed.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#175

Post by rhino369 »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #50
baxtr wrote: post #31

This is about local connection problems, audio device with your phone: >Hello? … Wait, hello? Can you hear me? Okay, hold on. Ugh. Okay, okay, just a second. I have to get my earphones to connect. Damn it. Okay, never mind, I’ll just hold it up to my head. Hi, ugh, sorry about that. I can confirm this. However, there is another class of problems, too, which aren't mentioned. Network problems. It is the year 2022 and…

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if this is happening to you it’s your fault. You must either live in a coal mine or use terrible tech for your calls. I have voip calls all the time and they’re all what you’re asking for. It just takes a tiny amount of forethought when deciding on what tech to use.

I work in Downtown DC, you can see the Washington monument from my office window--and I still get awful Verizon reception on an iPhone 12 pro.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#176

Post by solumunus »

2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #49
pavlov wrote: post #22

Phone 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?

> It's a _phone_. Phone calls are it's primary function.

So? This is a way to improve phone calls.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#178

Post by bluedino »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #136
xnickb wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it solved for someone who has to have phone calls? Since when saying "it's not a problem for me" solved any problems?

If you are being paid to answer your phone, then answer your phone. I’m not, so I don’t.

Or if you're waiting for a call from _____

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#179

Post by wutbrodo »

zdragnar wrote: post #152
midoridensha wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that's Google and not your device manufacturer or your carrier? The dialer on my Android phone seems OK. I'm not going to claim it's the best UX ever, but it certainly doesn't interrupt me with dialogs about anything. Android phones are infamous for having carrier-required crap pre-loaded.

I switched from LG to a pixel. I don't regret the better hardware or more frequent updates, but so many tiny things were substantially better on the LG. Biggest peeve: on the LG phones I had, you could use the volume buttons / menu to silence or turn down individual applications. On the pixel, out of the box you only get a global media volume control. Also have experience with the stock phone dialler putting up promp…

Yea, I feel like there's a big cargo cult element to the claims of carrier skins being crapware by default. I remember the moment I realized that the moto x (first post-Google moto phone) and the contemporary galaxy s both had solid advantages over the pixel. Eg Samsung beat pixel to the quick settings menu by YEARS (and by extension iOS by even more years), and this is now an industry standard.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#180

Post by imchillyb »

midoridensha wrote: post #116
2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

>It's a _phone_. Phone calls are it's primary function. No, it's not. You sound like a dinosaur. A phone's primary functions are 1) text-messaging apps, 2) camera, 3) dating apps, 4) banking apps, and various others. Phone calls are somewhere around #20.

You sound like you’re disconnected from reality.

Phone = Telephone: The term telephone was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, "far" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice", together meaning "distant voice".

Distant voice communication is the entire purpose for a phone.

Just because you want or expect your phone to do more, doesn’t make your desires the primary function of the device.

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