this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days 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 6 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How do you screen phone calls without voicemail?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days ago

Are these people just raw dogging phones calls?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Sam_Bass 3 points 6 days ago

Yep. All of those

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

What? Its not dead at all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days 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.

[–] yamanii 3 points 6 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Voicemail is dead, long live the voice message.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Fucking WhatsApp, thanks for nothing assholes

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days 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 6 days 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.

[–] DarkCloud 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago

That's because The Oatmeal made that game

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Edit: guy hosts his comics on amazonaws.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days 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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