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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

#341

Post by bern4444 »

Did the author ever try just not using headphones or other smart/connected devices to take the call?

Misclick and end the call? Call back.

Rushing and can't take the call without headphones, let it go to voicemail and call back when you can.

We have agency and autonomy. We don't have to use all the tech we have all the time. Everything around a phone call has 'progressive enhancement' from the bones up. That also means we can easily toss out all that 'enhancement' and be left with the same basic feature set.

Like everyone I sometimes fumble around with my headphones if they don't auto connect and its frustrating but its not a big deal. But far more often than not everything works well for me - starting the call on my watch and moving to my phone as I look for it, starting on my phone and moving to my headphones, starting and staying on my phone.

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

#342

Post by crooked-v »

powersnail wrote: post #305
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have my phone set to silence calls unless they are in my contacts list. [...] Honestly I think this should be the norm. There's no reason for a random stranger to need to call you I teach an after-school coding class. Some weeks ago, the parents of two children didn't arrive at pickup. After 20 minutes, I called the parents using the phone number listed in my company's system. The parents confirmed they were runn…

Presumably, had silenced call be the social default, the parents would have added your phone number into their contact list on the first day of school, sort of like how you have to add someone on a chat app to talk to them.

Or they would have seen that there was an actual message left and called back.

That's how I tell the scammers from actual calls 95% of the time - the scammers never leave a voicemail.

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

#343

Post by mikestew »

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?

t's a _phone_. Phone calls are it's primary function.

Not for about fifteen years or so, no. I don't even have the Phone app on the front page of my iPhone, let alone allow it to sit in the dock. Regardless, whatever the primary function of the device, there is room for improvement over "it's always worked that way".

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

#345

Post by bombcar »

disruptthelaw wrote: post #336
bombcar wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also something incredibly "simple" about the end result of an analog connection - literally a pair of wires connected across thousands of miles. Digitalization has added so many layers people don't even know - it's sad that there aren't many actual direct analog connections you can make anymore to see how "realtime" it was.

I remember overseas calls having a huge lag. Now I can call across and works and chat with perfect audio and video. I think we’re romanticizing the past and failing to recognize the ways in which calls are so much better.

Nothing can avoid the speed-of-light lag, but full-duplex and things have made it certainly better.

It's very noticeable on globe-spanning links (which is where video actually starts to help because you can use the silent visual cues).

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

#346

Post by progman32 »

robomartin wrote: post #339
tristor wrote: post #188

I have never had any of the issues described in this article and I've been using AirPods w/ an iPhone and a MacBook since AirPods came out. My issue with phone calls is 1. Robocalls 2. Robocalls 3. Robocalls 4. Robocalls 5. Robocalls I've been all over the world, and it is straight up fucked how bad this issue is in the US and it's not like this elsewhere. It's completely fixable, but American telcos make money off l…

> 1. Robocalls 2. Robocalls 3. Robocalls 4. Robocalls 5. Robocalls I have always thought that a simple --and likely very effective-- way to combat robocalls is to charge a nominal fee for all calls not in your address book. That fee could be $1 or more. It really doesn't matter how much other than having to be enough to be costly for those making unwelcome calls. The charge is levied both ways. If someone you don't k…

I don't understand why a scammer wouldn't just add the number to their address book before calling.

Also as an individual this would be kinda scary. Not to mention the fact I have to share my private address book, but also if my friend forgets to add me I can randomly have to pay?

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

#347

Post by Wowfunhappy »

powersnail wrote: post #305
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have my phone set to silence calls unless they are in my contacts list. [...] Honestly I think this should be the norm. There's no reason for a random stranger to need to call you I teach an after-school coding class. Some weeks ago, the parents of two children didn't arrive at pickup. After 20 minutes, I called the parents using the phone number listed in my company's system. The parents confirmed they were runn…

Presumably, had silenced call be the social default, the parents would have added your phone number into their contact list on the first day of school, sort of like how you have to add someone on a chat app to talk to them.

Parents do not, as a matter of course, have my cell phone number. It's fine for a few families to have it (because e.g. I had to call them), but if every parent in the program was able to message me at any time of day, I think I'd have a problem.

Now, there are other ways this could work. My company has a "director of client services"—let's call her "Anna"—and all parents have Anna's number. So I suppose I could have called Anna, and Anna could have called the parents, and then Anna could have called me back to relay what the parents said. It just would have taken longer.

Of course, Anna is occasionally sick / on vacation / otherwise unavailable, in which case there's a second person—let's call her "Vivian"—who I can reach out to in an emergency. We're an after-school program, so we're not set up to have a centralized office phone, but I guess parents could add Vivian to their contacts as well.

But I'm happy I was able to just call the parents.

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

#348

Post by dont__panic »

arnaudsm wrote: post #23

My golden rules to make videoconferencing more reliable : - Use ethernet. Wi-Fi isn't reliable, your neighbor's microwave can ruin everything. - Use wired headphones. 0 latency. 0 connection time. And disables the mic noise-cancelling algos. - Use classic phone calls when required. It's more robust and latency is even better.

Any tips on using ethernet when you're renting a house and unable to wire any infrastructure? My only hookup for internet is in a pretty poor spot for wireless connectivity to my office, but I don't have a good way to wire a cable instead since there's an entire living room, a staircase, a hallway, and multiple doors in the way.

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

#349

Post by amf12 »

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…

> Phone calls should have a subject line, just like emails.

Pixel phones have call screening feature. It can be enabled for all calls or unknown callers. It asks the caller to state the reason they are calling and notifies you with the text of the reason given and you can choose whether to accept or reject.

If you want something more then you could just ask callers to text you instead.

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

#350

Post by dont__panic »

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 spend a lot of time outdoors hiking and biking. Since 2019, I have noticed a serious stagnation -- and possibly degradation -- of phone reception. Used to be, I could send a text and call someone on even 1 bar of EDGE. Now I basically need >2 bars of LTE to do anything -- less than that and my phone isn't usable.

Maybe I need to pick up a 5G device. I am still using an LTE phone from 2016, so there could be some bands I'm missing out on. But my partner's much more recent phone has even more issues.

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