For a long time my voicemail was “Hello?” followed by about a 5 second pause, and then an actual “this is $name you’ve got my voicemail, leave a message thank you”
People. fucking. hated that voicemail with a passion. my own parents would get got by it, and then after not calling me for a few months get got by it all over again
I had recruiters suggest I change it because it was “unprofessional”, which I didn’t because if you can’t laugh at a prank like that I wouldn’t want to work for you I feel like there were more good-natured recruiters that found it funny, and I’d like to think it helped set the tone for the interaction better because of it
it also worked well to filter out spam calls, my speech-to-text voicemail app would out the bots when the text of the recording started mid-sentence and didn’t stop the recorded spiel
more people than not enjoyed the mild prank, and I loved it as a conversation started when calling someone back
OH and my greatest shame is fooling myself with it
my voicemail app wasn’t working right so I wanted to do something using the interactive voicemail options and so used my phone to call myself to operate my voicemail
when I heard “hello?” I hadn’t properly recognized my own voice and thought I might have misdialed my own number and accidentally got some stranger so I answered back “uh, hello?” and when the rest of the greeting after the pause started playing I facepalmed into next week
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“Hello and thank you for calling. At the tone, please hang up and text me instead. Have a nice day.”
I made mine short - first name. They know the number they called. I see no benefit in having the system tell people to leave a message, everyone knows how this works.
🎶 I must be out, or I’d pick up the phone, where could I be? 🎶
🎶 Believe it or not, I’m not home! 🎶
I added the sound of a disconnected land line to the beginning, a short pause, and then my voicemail message. Has done a pretty decent job of weeding out spam, scams, and impatient idiots.
Hi, you’ve reached my voicemail. At the tone, please hang up and send me a text.
I don’t have voicemail set up. I haven’t called myself in a long time to check but I don’t get voicemail notifications on my phone. I hope its that way because I’ll never check it anyway. I don’t even know how.
I guess if I did do voicemail I’d make it sound like I answered the phone and can’t hear well for as long as it would allow. I don’t fully understand the telemarketing industry but an open call line is an open call line and I’ll be happy to waste something of theirs if they want to waste my time.
I forgot I had one of those prank voicemails until a hiring manager reminded me :(
Who still uses voicemail?
Who actually still records voicemail instead of hanging up immediately?me
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My previous landline phone had a digital answerphone on it, and yes, there was a while where I took inspiration from the funny answerphone message lists that made it onto the early WWW from prior junk faxes and chain e-mails.
My current one - because I still get the occasional call on the landline number - might have a similar “record your own” feature, but I’ve never bothered. I use the prerecorded message that came with the base station phone.
As for my mobile… I don’t actually remember what the message is that I have on there, but it won’t be anything interesting. Also it costs money to check / make changes to it on my plan, so it won’t be getting my attention any time soon.
my voicemail greeting is super fast, about 5 seconds. its just my first name and leave a message so the caller can actually leave one
Do people still use voicemail? I mean for personal non-business reasons.
What would be the advantage compared to voice messages?I never leave voicemails to friends. I’ll text them afterwards if they don’t pick up. “Yo, called to say hey. cya”
If anyone calls me, it’s either ‘my house is on fire and I’m simultaneously being robbed’ or I will go to their house and light them on fire.
Anything short of a live emergency gets conveyed through text/pictures. This is universal for my friend circle. Just got shot and are in the ER? Picture. Just got clocked doing 115 in your prius because you are fighting shitting yourself in the middle of nowhere? Text. Doctors office wants to confirm my appointment next week? Text. My credit card has some unusual activity? Text, asking me to call them. The basement is flooded after a big storm? Picture. House actually on fire and you are freaking out waiting for the firefighters? Fine, call. And record a video while you’re at it.
I don’t think I’ve ever left a voicemail. Ever. Text, email, sky writing, smoke signals. Just no calls.
I like talking with my friends over the phone every other weekend because we live in different cities.
Here’s a question, though: do you ever voice chat with anybody, like, via Discord? I could see how newer generations would prefer that over a phone call, but that would be today’s equivalent.
I use discord daily, and I used to use skype, and xfire, and teamspeak, and ventrillo… Way way back when, I had a friend call me on the weekends so we could ‘voice chat’ while playing games.
I think my whole circle is ‘anti-phone’ because when the phone rings, or when you have to make a call, it’s never good. Issues with the bank, bugging the mechanic to get your car fixed, calling insurance because they fucked up again, calling out for work because you’re sick, calling about a job/interview… Versus casual voice chat where you aren’t on edge the whole time, where you can set your headset down and get a drink, go to the bathroom… You aren’t chained to a physical location or object. Where you can ask someone to repeat themselves 3 times and not be struck off the interview list because of a poor cell connection. Phone calls are so… Stressful, limiting, requiring most or all of your attention. Scheduling things, calculating finances, making plans for a group, and you can’t go back and listen to the conversation again, you have to understand everything and get everything right, the first time…
So even my best friends, when they call, and they know it’s a serious occurrence and they ‘would have texted but’, but the ringing still sets me on edge.
Phone calls are so… Stressful, limiting, requiring most or all of your attention
Sorry you had that experience. To me, phone calls are not more inconvenient than any other form of voice chat. Put in your hands-free headphones and go on with your business around the house or wherever you are out there in the world.
I should note that I’m disabled (substantially physically, and a touch cognitively) - I wasn’t always like this, but life sucks sometimes. But also, when I interact with people in any ‘serious’ capacity, it is absolutely imperative that I ingest all the information and data accurately, retain it fully, and then take action appropriately. With texts or email, I can reread and make sure that I understand things correctly, make sure I didn’t forget details, etc. It is so stressful because I can’t go back and make sure I got all the details correct, or whatever else. I can’t reassure myself that I completed a task to absolute completion. So the pressure to process all of a conversation is immense. Then, being a perfectionist sure doesn’t help…
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Mine says it doesn’t accept messages and to please text me if its important.
I had one client that caused that. He’d call after work hours and leave seemingly endless messages about nothing almost daily. So I let my mailbox fill up and changed my outgoing message. Its been close to 4 years and my mailbox is still full of his rambling.
I’ve been meaning to record one that says, “Due to the high influx of fraudulent calls, I don’t answer numbers that I don’t have saved. If you fall into this category and would like me to respond, please leave a message or send a text.”
