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.

Thankyou. For anyone as useless as I am, the WhatsApp option seems a bit cumbersome. I've found an easier way for Windows 10 and Chrome. Locate the voice mail. Open Google Docs and choose 'Blank document'. The cursor should start blinking. Go to 'Tools' at the top and scroll down to 'Voice typing'. A black microphone appears on the left, when you click it goes red. Just play the message and it just starts writing. Bob's your Uncle !

I'm talking about landlines where you didn't know who was calling and why until you picked up.

Although using your logic you could just.... not listen to the voice note until it's convenient. You don't have to drop everything and listen immediately, the same way that you don't have to respond to a text immediately.

I think the difference is that phone calls are much more interactive. They're a two way thing. In a conversation, you aren't on the receiving end of what may be several minutes of speech from the other person, that you're expected to understand, without any opportunity to ask for clarification or explain anything that might be relevant yourself. Some phone calls function like that, but people absolutely complained about it then too!

There just isn't a pre voice note version of voice notes in the way that some people use them now. The closest thing was probably answering machines. Even they were often time limited and not everyone had them. I expect some people did have versions that let someone leave a 10 minute one plus callers who frequently made use of that facility, but not common enough for it to be much of a thing.

I have a friend who sends voice notes because they're busy cooking or driving. I just reply that I'm not able to listen now but will listen when I can. They rarely send voice messages now...

It's just not the same. On a landline, you don't know who is calling so you aren't under that pressure to call them back or do anything. Phone stops ringing, they're gone. A voice note sits there, you know who it's from and you're expected to listen to it and respond.

The Head teacher at dcs' old secondary school briefly went through a stage of sending a recording of himself reading out the school newsletter instead of sending an emailed version. It was like having to attend assembly. It didn't last long before he started sending the written version again too.

It would massively piss me off. It's a very millennial thing to do! ( Possibly massively generalising - the only p ople I know who do this are busy millennials!)

Christ I LOVE a voice note!
It’s so much easier to send a voice note while out walking the dogs - I can’t walk and text! I also love getting voice notes as they’re easier to listen to while washing up, walking etc..
If you don’t like voice messages just tell her you don’t like them…. Just a simple ‘Sorry X I really don’t like voice messages, I can’t listen to them when I’m working and then forget about them later, would you mind just texting ?’

Rubbish! How is sending a voice note saying everything you want to tell others any different to sending a text saying the same thing?!… people are free to respond either straight away by either text or another voice note….
why do you think you can’t respond to a voice note? How very strange.

Me and my mum send voice notes and I’ll send her a few questions and she’ll respond … it’s no different to text

It's completely different to text.

Reading something allows you to take the information in at your own pace, and you can re-read the part you want or need to. You need to be concentrating on it and can't really be doing much else.
Listening to something means the speaker sets the pace and tone, and you have to listen to all of it again to get any information you need. You can multitask while listening, but don't have the information laid out for you.

Rowan Atkinson, "Dending voice notes is easy, but receiving them is hard, arguing they shift the burden from sender to receiver."

Just lie and say for some reason you cant hear the sound of voice notes.

My wife has friends and a sister that seem to just go about their daily business sending her voice notes. Some of these are 7 to 9 minutes long and she feels she needs to listen to them incase she misses something. I got so fed up with having to listen to them, I built her an app that listens, transcribes and summarises the voice notes as they arrive.

You can listen x 1.5 or x 2 !!!!

my lovely friend does long messages and I love them - really make me smile and as I listen I type back a response as she will go from state of the world, her foot ulcer, what she’s having for dinner and what cousin Bob is doing next week!!! So I type back appropriate responses to each part of the message as I listen.

sometimes I can’t listen to them instantly if somewhere without my headphones such as on the train etc - in which case I text back ‘on train - will listen when I get home’ so if anything urgent she would know to text.

if not your preferred method of communication- tell her . I can text for England but not talk - she can talk for England , wales, Scotland and Ireland but not text!

we make it work as we love each other

I find listening at 1.5x or 2x makes everyone sound angry. I would get all panicked, then realise my wife wasn't angry at me, she was just at double speed.

I found it - voice message transcription feature which has to be enabled - not existing world wide.

1. Open WhatsApp
2. Go to Settings
3. Tap Chats
4. Look for Voice message transcripts
5. Turn it ON
6. When you receive a voice message, you should see an option like “Transcribe” under it or by long-pressing the message

The text appears directly below the audio message.