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The first minute of every phone call is torture now

theatlantic.com

41–50 of 450 posts

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

#41
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like other countries have it too. What country were you visiting? https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045618/spam-calls-per-m...

In the UK we have it, but not as bad as in the US. In Germany we don't seem to have it at all

Can confirm. From Germany, have the same number for 15+ years, basically any provider has this number and probably leaked it at some time. Still no spam at all. I think there are heavy penalties for that in Germany.

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

#42
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.

Yeah, I think it's called IM.

> It’s crazy that anyone can force a full-screen interrupt on my personal device with no context.

That's called DND, my phone is 100% time in DND mode. There are already filters for spam calls based on phone number.

> 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?!”

Maybe tell wife to write you IM/SMS or just communicate through IM as priority, if you desire text communication?

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

#43
I suppose sometimes there's also a good side to belonging to an older generation (like me): my experience with making phone calls looks like this: walk out into the hallway where the charging station is plugged in, pick up the phone handset, punch in the number, push the green button, wait, and talk. The end.

Did I mention that I don't own a smart phone?

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

#44

I cannot read the article due to the paywall, but just to vent.....one painful phone pet peeve for me that's declined recently is the art of people leaving a useful voice mail. Ok, I get it. There's a few technically-challenged people that struggle with emails and texts and prefer to use their voice. I'm perfectly happy to deal with that. But they call and leave a voice mail that focuses on the wrong information. The…

> and phone number (even though any digital system provides that already

Speaking of which, when I call any customer service, they ALWAYS ask for my phone number. I've been baffled by this for awhile. Why? Can't they see it?

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

#45
post #37
post #12

Because phones aren't allowed to have bezels anymore for some reason, I'm constantly hanging up on people because there's no room for a proximity sensor to turn off the screen so my cheek presses the "hang up" button. It tries to use the front camera as a makeshift sensor, but it doesn't work very well. Recently I reacted with incredulity when the people on the other end could properly hear me through a newly-connect…

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.

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

#47
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…

This feature would be super useful, since nobody I would ever willingly talk to would use it I could dump all calls with subjects to voicemail (and then not check it).

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

#48
post #6

I was out of the country last month. Absolutely no spam on my "in country" sim there. Just exactly what I asked for, useful calls and texts. The moment I got back, I was inundated with spam and texts. I don't understand how we've let it get this bad in the USA.

I bought a SIM in Brazil a few years ago and was bombarded with text spam within minutes of putting the card into my phone, most of it from the carrier.

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

#49
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?

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

#50
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.
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