this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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[–] SpaceNoodle 102 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Since when is voicemail dead? It's vital for when I miss a call from a healthcare provider, pharmacy, contractor, service provider ... do y'all just sit in a sealed box all day?

[–] Iheartcheese 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I sit in a box and I smear shit on the walls

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

cries in Lemmy

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

no, I call my doctors or other services to verify dates.. voicemail is abused by spammers so I never listen to them

[–] SpaceNoodle 27 points 1 month ago (7 children)

You're aware that you can see the phone number of the caller, right?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

See the number? Hell, I've had transcription since at least 2010.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's me. I've been typing out all your messages and you don't even seem to appreciate it! My fingers hurt...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Why thank you!

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

I get tons of spam calls and basically zero spam voicemail 🤷‍♂️

Plus with most carriers being able to transcribe voicemails I don't even need to listen to them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Spammers never ever leave voicemails, that's how I know a call was spam. If someone actually needs me, either I have their numbers already or they leave a voicemail

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I send all unknown calls to voice mail. I’ve had my carrier disable voice mail for my phone line.
My providers all use email or are ‘known’ by my phone. … I hope.

[–] SpaceNoodle 6 points 1 month ago (5 children)

So when the new specialty pharmacy phones you for details on where to send your prescription, you're just gonna ... not?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My pharmacies have always sent me a text notification that my prescription is ready for pick up. The only people calling my phone are scammers

[–] SpaceNoodle 2 points 1 month ago

I'm happy for you that you've never had to deal with length prior authorizations, specialty pharmacies, need for clarifications, notifications of delay ...

I remember being on the phone with my pharmacist a few hours before my wedding - he called so something could get sorted out ASAP. Fortunately that one didn't have to go to voicemail.

[–] Dupree878 2 points 1 month ago

I would wonder why they are not emailing or texting me like they should. I can’t think of anything more rude than calling someone.

And I’m old

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

A basement actually

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I think it's early to declare voicemail dead. It was alive and kicking when I checked mine last Christmas...or was that Christmas 2019? Maybe I should check on it again.

And I've been assured that my work voicemail is definitely setup and functional. I trust the team that sets those things up, and I'm confident that it's doing it's job... whatever it's for.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hahahaha, have my upvote.

Yea, we don't bother at work. You know I called, don't waste your time listening to a message. If I called, it was urgent, get back to me as quick as you can.

Otherwise I'm gonna send you a message to setup a call.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah. I'm very thankful that my work operates by the same expectations.

Anyone calling unscheduled is urgent enough that I probably shouldn't waste time listening to the voicemail. Every other call is scheduled, anyway.

It leaves my work voicemail delightfully empty.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How do you screen phone calls without voicemail?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't answer the phone for unknown numbers. Super simple

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yep, if it's important they'll leave a message. Wait...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

If it's important I'll be expecting a phone call or know who is calling me. All that a voicemail does is tell spammers that they have a valid and active phone number that they should keep calling.

[–] WR5 11 points 1 month ago

"Hi honey, it's me. I'm calling from the hospital, my phone was damaged in the crash. I know this area code is weird, we were only about halfway to Grandma's when we were hit..."

"Unknown number? I'm not listening to that shit, I'm waiting for my wife to call when she gets to her parents house!"

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Are these people just raw dogging phones calls?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think the voicemail thing is very country specific, I mean here in Poland voicemail is the first thing to disable when you get the phone number, it's even considered rude to have it enabled, it stems from the times when the calls were billed by the minute and carriers seemed to switch to voicemails after too soon, like after 1-2 beeps and "sending signals" (calling without answering to communicate, like "I'll send you a signal when I'll be there" or something) was popular among the young people

On the other hand the answering machines weren't a thing here, maybe it's connected?

Also I don't get the reason behind "but some random business might call me", isn't that an unsolicited call? Of course it's a completely different thing when your number is a business number, but on the other hand why not send an email? Guessing it's a deeply cultural thing stemming from aforementioned answering machines, for me listening through the voice message is inefficient, I prefer text content, like I'd rather read the article than view the video summary, but I know some people prefer it

And here we are in the times of voice messages, my wife uses it to communicate with her friend and I'm tired of hearing those umms, food swallowing, lip smacking etc

[–] Emptiness 3 points 1 month ago

Yep, Scandinavia here signing under this as well. Well written!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Voicemail's definitely not dead.

I can't find any voicemail services that work the way I want them to though, so I started building my own using Twilio to handle the incoming phone call + ElevenLabs for text-to-speech + AssemblyAI for speech-to-text + Trestle Smart CNAM API for identifying the caller. I'll open-source the code once it's ready.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seems awfully over complicated. Why not just use some twiml verbs like and ?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Twilio's TTS isn't as good as ElevenLabs, and their transcription isn't as good as AssemblyAI. AssemblyAI can pull key details out of the message (eg people's names, company names, callback numbers, etc) and IIRC it's quite a bit cheaper than Twilio's transcription. AssemblyAI provide $50 free credit to try their service, which should last me a very long time assuming it doesn't expire.

Plus now I can put "AI engineer" on my resume, lol. A lot of "AI" is all about gluing other people's work together, and that's exactly what I'm doing.

[–] Sam_Bass 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Was gonna say I use voicemail almost everyday. For the simple reason I'm not always close to phone and don't pickup on unknown numbers

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Who even leaves voicemails anymore? If I don't reach somebody I just sent them a quick text why I called and whatever to call back.

[–] Sam_Bass 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Doctors offices, bill collectors, anything to do with finances basically.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Really? All of those are email or texts for me. Genuinely can't remember the last time I recieved or sent a genuine phone call.

[–] Sam_Bass 2 points 1 month ago

Well that's your zone. Where I am its email text and voicemail. Only time I get emails is from companies I deal with regularly the rest go to VM. The odd texts I get are about 60/40 spam\phish or doc appts

[–] SpaceNoodle 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Finance, medical, family, contractors (yard guy, HVAC guy, etc.), service providers (auto shop, insurance, etc.) ...

[–] Sam_Bass 3 points 1 month ago

Yep. All of those

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

I love getting transcripts and then returning the call that goes to their voicemail.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

What? Its not dead at all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I had voicemail deactivated for decades. I'm not reachable? Call again later or write a message. Now that I'm older I had to reactivate it because contractors, pharmacy etc. expect and use it to send me information.

I hate voice messages in WhatsApp and the like but I can see the usage for others. My wife communicates with her friends this way. When you have to watch the kids you can send and listen to messages without having to look at your phone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Voicemail is dead, long live the voice message.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fucking WhatsApp, thanks for nothing assholes

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I do love the oatmeal, but everything he does now is just for money. He’s probably just got a team of writers at this point.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

What makes you say that? The website seems way less ad heavy or monetized than most webcomic sites. I dont even see a link for a patreon or any sort of paywall. Theres one trailer for his netflix show but thats barely even self promotion, and doesnt come close to the shameless levels of nearly begging that a lot of webcomic artists do.

[–] yamanii 3 points 1 month ago

Here you have to pay to listen to them I think since the beginning, so voicemail was something very few people used and most of the time your grandma would leave one by accident.

[–] DarkCloud 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That drawing style remind me of the card game with the explosives and the kittens.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

That's because The Oatmeal made that game

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I want to sit down with the person who brought voice notes to Hinge, and ask them why the fuck they thought dating by voicemail was a good idea.

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