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.

Yes I love them! Me and my friend live far away from each other and we are both single mums so often send long notes ranting about our days (neither of us have time for phone calls). We have an agreement that there is no obligation to respond. Sometimes we send several per day and other times don’t reply for a couple of weeks. Works well for us!

Yes daily with close friends.
Love them!

I have one friend with whom I exchange long (not 20 mins but 3 or 4 often) voicenotes, because we can catch up on loads of stuff, but we both have completely at-odds schedules so we can never manage a phone call. But we wouldn't send each other voicenotes for urgent stuff and neither will get upset if there's no response or the response comes days later. Another friend sends them from time to time when she's out riding as that's some of the only downtime she gets. Again, she's not going to be upset if I don't reply though.

I don't leave voicenotes for anyone else though as I know lots of people hate them! And no one else sends them to me.

Nope, my friend does and drives me batty, thankfully she doesnt do for me now after spoke about it! 🙈🤣

No! Just text or agree a time to talk.

I intensely dislike voice notes and think their only legitimate use is by people who can't write for whatever reason.

I dislike the fact that you can't scroll back to check things as with text.

I dislike the fact that listening is far, far more intrusive than reading.

I know you can potentially listen on 1.5 speed, but listening is way slower and more time consuming than reading.

The only people I'd listen to a ten minute voice message from would be my children, but why would they send a ten minute voice message? Perhaps if we were in completely incompatible time zones...

That's not what your opening post said - you asked what people liked/ disliked about them - so both sides.

Now you're saying that you only want people to agree with you.

I had no idea people used voice notes like this.

The only ones I've had have had, have been where someone is trying to identify a song or something so needs to hum / 'la' it.

I would NOT listen to a voice note longer than a few seconds.
People can phone me if they want to chat, and enjoy a two way conversation.

But don't you have to listen again when you want to reply? Or do you take notes?

You either have the time to respond immediately and then you can call and talk or your reply can't be that detailed.

I haven't spoken to my lovely PIL for a couple of weeks - various reasons. I got a WhatsApp earlier today, just a "What's going on, we are all well, had a couple of early evening strolls when the heat went down. Aren't you off soon?".

That is easy to respond to - in writing - unless I want to pick up the phone and call.

I don't want a 20 minutes monologue.

I have two friends where we leave this each other this length of voicenote.

One lives far away and we don't often get to catch up, she instigated them but I really enjoy them so we've continued. We have a flurry of them every few months and we just respond when it's convenient for us as we're both quite busy. I prefer calls to texts and she's the other way round, so it just works for us.

My other friend is autistic and hates phone calls but likes catching up. We switch between voicenotes and texts, depending on how much time or energy we have, but we message frequently. It means she can respond when she has the spoons and, again, it works for us.

I couldn't imagine leaving voicenotes with other friends, nor would I want to, but I enjoy doing it with these friends. Bit morbid but I actually wish my family would leave voicenotes from time to time, just so I can listen to them when they're no longer here.

Hate hate hate them. So intrusive. Can’t just glance down and scan quickly. Have to find a quiet place to listen, or look for ear buds. So selfish of the sender. Saves sender time at my expense. With all the excellent diction apps, why not just use that??

That sounds fucking terrible. I read the title and came on to talk about a mate of mine who does voice notes that I thought were plenty long enough… but still <5 minutes 😅 I just find them so annoying, like I get it’s easier for her because she can just yap while doing other things but trying to listen to them and take it in is much harder than just reading a text!

Yes, me and my bestie love it!

With the transcribe button why not just use that?

I absolutely hate them, which I didn't realise until recently as my dc has been seriously ill in hospital for several months and I get frequent voice notes which honestly give me a visceral feeling when I see them arrive and I delay opening them for hours, didn't realise that there is a transcribe function might try that, wouldn't be surprised if I get a form of ptsd from them !

The transcribing is very hit and miss.

I don't get many but when my sister sent me one recently I felt I had to be in private to listen to it just in case she said sth confidential. This was not convenient whereas a text I can easily read wherever I am.

I do with a younger relative who lives in a different part of the uk. She has 2 small children so I enjoy hearing about them and get much more from the voice notes than she would put into a text. She is much busier than me so when she has a chance drops me a nice chatty voice note which I appreciate

I don't get many but when my sister sent me one recently I felt I had to be in private to listen to it just in case she said sth confidential. This was not convenient whereas a text I can easily read wherever I am.

Exactly. This is another issue I have with them.

If I haven’t got time for a conversation, I haven’t got time for a voice note.
I don’t have much ( any) time available during the day when I am not either working or in a public space. I don’t use headphones, I use traffic jams to make calls to a couple of family members who need regular contact, there is really no time to be listening to some voice notes, and once I get home, done dinner etc I may well not remember to listen to a message that was sent 8 or 9 hours previously.
On the other hand, I can read texts while in the loo, or whilst walking between classes.
I tell people not to bother sending me voice notes as I don’t listen to them. I used to turn off the answerphone feature on my phone, but I can’t find a way of disabling it on WhatsApp.

Not as a general rule, but I do have a close friend who I send voice notes to regularly. She started to send them originally, and I realised it was quite a comfort to hear her friendly, calm voice during my day when I can pick it up.

We’re not often available at exactly the same time for calls due to clashing schedules, but it’s great to be able to hear from her as I’m doing chores when she’s at work, and she likes to catch up when she’s goes for her daily walk whilst I’m working.

I wouldn’t assume anyone else in my life would necessarily appreciate the same though.

Absolutely not. many people like me are hard of hearing

Definitely not, they are super annoying.

Can’t stand them. I get them and they really irritate me. Just text. Or call. You can even speak to text if you can’t type. Then I can read it when I want. Or not. Never send them!

My heart sinks when I see someone has sent a voice note. I don’t think I’d even listen to a 10 minute VN monologue. If the person is that important you’d find the time to have a telephone call.