Friend keeps sending long voice notes instead of messages

[GirouxSein]

A friend has started sending voice notes for everything. Some of them are 5 minutes long and I often can’t listen straight away. It then feels rude when I reply hours later.
I know it’s probably meant to be more personal, but I find it a bit overwhelming and honestly prefer a normal message I can skim when I’m busy.

I don't know. One of the horde of people who hated them said they're milennial but I'm Gen X. I don't think it's generational, I think it's all about attitude. Strange that people who hate them are projecting that people who send them are selfish, when they themselves are basically saying, in some cases about their own DCs, "ain't nobody got time for that". I think THAT'S really selfish.

Really?! I didn’t realise that! Amazing! You’ve possibly saved me a couple of friendships here.

Drives me nuts. Some 10 mins. But you csn transcribe them!

Don’t worry, I now have done.. 👌

A relative of mine used to do this. They were often 10+ minutes long. Huge monologues with loads of questions for me to answer . I just started ignoring them.

I only got one the other day and quite liked it - sent an even longer one back!

I get regular 20 minute messages from my cousin when she’s driving to work.

It’s basically a stream of consciousness

Sometimes I respond But usually by the time I’ve listened to it, forgotten what she said at the beginning!

I absolutely love them! Clearly I’m in the minority here……

My life is crazy busy at the moment. I also have crap internet at times. Several of my friends and I send regular voice notes - we don’t get to chat or meet up as often as we’d like, this way we get to hear about each other’s lives when we can. We all realise we can’t necessarily listen immediately or even for a couple of days and that’s fine. It’s almost like free therapy to us.

One friend of mine is having a really challenging time at the moment - she sometimes (and brace yourselves…..) leaves me 15 minute long voice notes where she offloads all her worries / angst, I do the same to her.

We all listen on headphones when we’re doing all the boring mundane stuff like driving to work / walking the dogs / cleaning.

Horses for courses but much easier than typing out a load of stuff (yes I get the irony) or trying to work out a mutually convenient time to chat which seems to be getting harder and harder.

Just pick your own method to respond. Letter in the post, ad in the paper, billboard near their house, carrier pigeon, telegram, barbershop quartet, town crier.

Thankfully, no one I know sends them to me, but I have seen other people listen to them.
I would have no idea how to respond. They just seem like a one sided monolog to me. How do you break it up into bits you can reply to?
I do feel like voicenotes/voicemails should be quick, concise, and to the point.
I was once sent a message on FB from someone. It was a wall of text, and I had to put it in a word processor to take it in and formulate a reply. The word count was more than some of my uni assignments.
I could not imagine dealing with the same but with the spoken word.

This is brilliant! THANK you!

Or just be direct and tell her that you don't like voicenotes and definitely will not be listening to 5 min long voicenotes.

I’m in one particular WhatsApp group where everyone sends really long voicenotes of up to 5 mins each time. It’s so annoying! I rarely listen. I just want it in writing 😂

One is from a car and differently annoyingly noisy.

OMG My brother does that. He like to "use" his driving time to catch up on phone calls!

You leave a meeting to check your personal phone 😲😲😲

Not if you worked for me you wouldn't, it's unbelievably rude!

Maybe just call them back and ask what they wanted? You know, like actually have a conversation 🤷🏻‍♀️

Urgh they seem a generational thing. My kids love a voice note. Checking their phones is tedious. I hate them. Can’t listen in a busy place without headphones in and I don’t carry them in my. Apple CarPlay can’t read them - seems ironic when it can read texts but can’t play voice notes. My kids often message me when I’m driving - usually pick up arrangements after school and clubs. They’ve been told no voice notes and no pictures if they know I’m in the car.

I don't think it is generational. The worst culprit in my life is nearly 60.

Does anyone know if there's a way to turn a voice message into text with one of those clever apps?

WhatsApp has a transcribe option for voice notes, it’s been mentioned many times on this thread.

Maybe tell her you prefer texts

Yes I’m millennial and thought it was maybe older generations, as I got dragged into it late! Yes, I agree. A lot of people saying ‘it’s so selfish sending them, I don’t have time to listen to you telling me about your life’ - sounds like they are the selfish ones who don’t have time to listen to their friends and family 😅

Back in the days of phone calls did everyone think it incredibly selfish and rude to receive one?

No, but you have the option not to pick a phone up if you don't want to. Voice notes are like going back in time to the awful days of answering machines. I hated leaving messages and hated having to listen to them.

I get why some people like them or prefer them and fully understand the accessibility considerations. Therefore I am tolerant of it when friends use them because it works better for them. Accessibility wise on my side, my short term memory and verbal processing are poor, so texts are much easier for me. Therefore they can send me voice notes if they like, and I may transcribe them if I prefer to read them. I will not reply with a voice note, and they can use text to speech for my reply if they'd rather listen to it than read it.

I live overseas and find voice notes are often used by people whose English is not fluent, they find it easier to speak than to write it down and have to think about spelling and grammar. Those are the only ones I tolerate though. My dog sitter is Brazilian and she often sends her updates as voice notes.