• SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    106
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    29 days ago

    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?

    • stinky@redlemmy.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      29 days ago

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

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            28 days ago

            Your phone will show the phone number of the person who left the voicemail. Please think.

            Not every number is private or unknown. Please think.

            • stinky@redlemmy.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              28 days ago

              Don’t be mad. It’s literally someone else’s phone habits, lol. What a silly thing to get upset about.

              I didn’t say every number is private - I said spammers leave voicemails from private numbers so you won’t know who they are. It makes sense, right? “Sirius XM left a voicemail” is obviously spam, but “Unknown number left a voicemail” could be somebody important. Critical thinking, friendo :) Good luck!

                • stinky@redlemmy.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  28 days ago

                  You’re insulting people and calling THEM trolls? Truly the height of hypocrisy. I don’t have any more time to waste on you, so I’ll block you without reading your next response. Have the day you deserve.

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        29 days 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.

      • christophski@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        28 days ago

        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

        • stinky@redlemmy.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          28 days ago

          I always get “An unresolved issue in our office requires your immediate attention, please call XYZ” with no other identifying information. I’ve learned to clear my inbox without listening to anything because if we had an existing relationship they’d say so.

          …did you think I was lying or something? why would you say “spammers never ever leave voicemails” if I just said they do, lol

    • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      28 days ago

      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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

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

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          28 days ago

          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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            28 days 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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          28 days 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

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          28 days ago

          If I find myself in a situation like that, I have temporarily turned off automatically sending unknown numbers to voicemail. But about 99% of my existence is sending unknowns into the ether.

            • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              28 days ago

              Generally I shrug off that scenario. If I need something or want something, I’m available. But if I don’t, then it’s okay to give myself permission to be unavailable.

              But also, my phone number isn’t from where I currently live. Numbers that call do show up in my call logs, even if they get sent to a nonexistent voice mail. A number from my current area code may get a call back after I look up their number. But I don’t bother to look up numbers that aren’t from where I’m currently at, or numbers that call me repeatedly. Spammers use computers that automatically retry their calls, so an unreasonable number of calls immediately after one another are a dead giveaway.

              Your attention is a valuable commodity. No one is entitled to it. I take a lot of steps to ensure my attention is protected from misuse - including asking a business to give me their number so I can call them first, so they’ll be ‘known’ to my phone before they try to call me.

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      29 days ago

      Yeah I love voicemail. It’s an easy way to tell if I need to return a call or it was a scam

    • toofpic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      25
      ·
      29 days ago

      If you’re a usual person, then “boo-hoo, people are so scared to be blocked by you”.
      If you’re a moderator or something, you’re evil and unfit the position.

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    29 days ago

    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.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      29 days ago

      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.

      • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        28 days 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.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          28 days ago

          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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            28 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!”

          • ahal@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            28 days ago

            “We’ve referred you to the specialist, their office should reach out sometime in the next 8 months”

            Good luck remembering that call is coming.

  • 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    28 days ago

    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

  • dan@upvote.au
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    28 days ago

    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.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        28 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@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    28 days ago

    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

    • fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      28 days ago

      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.

        • saigot@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          28 days ago

          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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            28 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@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          28 days ago

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

  • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    28 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@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    28 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.

  • whithom@discuss.online
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    29 days ago

    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.

    • emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      28 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.