Do you use long voice notes to keep in touch?

[SilverandSage]

Random question! 😂 Do any of you regularly use voice notes to keep in touch with friends or family? I mean proper long ones, not just “I’m running late” type messages 😂. I’m interested in whether other people have the same thing I do where you and a friend can end up sending each other 10–20 minute voice notes because you don’t have time to actually speak on the phone.
If you do, I’d love to know what you like/dislike about it.

My friends daughter sent me one last year when she wanted to ask my advice about something. It was 1:45 long - the transcription was terrible. One long wall of text, no punctuation and so many words wrongly transcribed. I’d never received one before so initially I was confused and thought it was a text… She’s an English teacher so I thought she’d been hacked 😂

I have a friend who does this and I find it the height of arrogance. She doesn’t have time to speak to me, isn’t interested in the other half of the conversation or what I have to say so sends a 16 min voice note! I didn’t listen to the last one.

They’re a pain in the neck. A very dear very long term friend sends them which I tolerate because I love her a lot and her friendship means a lot but wouldn’t bother for a new friend/love interest etc. I use the transcribe button initially to give me the general gist of the message and listen to it later.

my friend doesn't send 10 minute ones but even with 3-4 minute ones I'd pause the message to reply to her, you aren't legally forced to sit stock still for the whole time and do nothing else

I don't mind an informative voice note where someone fills me in on what they have been up to...and it gives me a chance to reply in my own time. I actually like them. They can be pleasant.

I also have an agony aunt friend and we regularly vn issues we are having and given advice.

I have one friend though sends ramblings voice notes 10 mins long talking about shite about her life. I actually stopped listening to them.

Voice notes depend on the context.

but if she's not interested in your reply, surely she'd be the same on the phone or face to face? rambling on, talking over your interjections and disregarding your input

by that logic, if a text is easier for you but not for her, are your texts self centered drivel?

I get the odd 30 second on from one friend, which is just about acceptable as an alternative to a typed message, but there is no way I would be listening to a diatribe.

It's like a verbal blog, a self indulgent personal shipping forecast, broadcast into a void.

It's up there with the ultimate in self absorption.

If someone sent me a text that took half an hour to write I wouldn't read that either, if that's the logic.

I also hate them. They are self indulgent.

Why do you think I have 8 minutes to listen to you uhm and ahhh / ponder / repeat / pause / think out loud / give me a running commentary of where you are and what you've just randomly noticed, when I am a fast reader and could ingest the relevant information in 10 seconds?

I don't want to hear your voice note any more than I want to hear someone else's scrolling audio.

This is not how my family and friends do it at AT ALL! The whole point and the reason the notes are long is that we tell each other important things going on in our lives and then we respond to what one another has said in the previous notes. But this post wasn’t intended for those who hate voice notes and want to judge those who like them. It’s purely to find people who do use them and chat to those people.

This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for, constructive and helpful. Thank you!

Sorry this says more about your friend than the voice note!!

Yes I do have time, but not when they are free! And vice versa….

Nope, why is the senders time more important than my own? Voice notes get ignored or forgotten by me, I would need a quiet space to go and listen, whether I’m at work or home.

How the hell do you remember what you want to comment on if it’s 20 mins long? It sounds like you’d need to take meeting notes!

It’s my first post, I had absolutely no idea about the hornets nest I was unintentionally poking 😂

We don’t see each other that’s the point. And I never said it was a monologue about my day. But thanks for the input.

I would never be able to maintain my friendships if they were entirely based on 20 min there and back voice notes. Do you ever meet in person?
I guess it’s like letter writing but M U C H slower.

I have friends/ WhatsApp groups where we communicate almost entirely on voicenotes until we see each other again.

Then I have friends who have never voice-noted me in the first place so I take it from that that they don’t like them so we talk or message. If I sent a friend a Voicenote and they never responded back with a voicenote then I pick up on that and don’t do it with them. Yes some love them and some don’t. Never let it be one sided!

My absolute maximum length (I know this as I was surprised) was 6 minutes. (Was with a friend who leaves equal length ones) …. . I couldn’t imagine leaving a 10 to 20 minute one. Even I find that way too much but then if your friends’ are also that length then that’s what works for you!

Quite obviously, because you can scan read the average text in about 5 seconds and you have it to refer directly back to if you need. It doesn’t usually contain tangents or nonsense like a spoken monologue.

I’m not a fan of them. However, if they work for the sender and receiver, then happy days!! It is hard to be free at the same time, so good you’ve found something that helps. It’s personal taste. I hate long text conversations, but think I’m in the minority there too!

Well obviously, but my point is if someone is rambling on for several minutes it’s not a conversation. If you were sitting in a room with someone who just talked at you for 3 or 4 minutes you’d think they were rude as hell.

Oh dear. For your next post, ask people how often they change their bedding.

I have never used a voice note in my life (wouldn't know how to), nor does anybody else I know. What is the point? We already have phone (which I hate), video call, text email what's app and good old-fashioned snail mail!