“I thought I’d voice note because it’s easier”

[crabsaremisunderstood]

More and more of my friends reply to my texts with a voice note and cite this exact phrase. Yes, it’s easier. But ONLY for the sender, not the recipient! I hate having to speed up the bastard things to get to the point of the message, when I could scan read a text in a matter of seconds.

Also, I don’t mind them when I’ve got a free day and can listen whilst pottering about with housework, but there’s no chance I can listen when I’m at work, so I have to leave them hanging for hours instead of seeing the text and quickly replying.

AIBU?

(light hearted…sort of )

I reeeeeeeally dislike voice notes! I almost feel like listening to them is an obligation, whereas texts are so much easier. There's a fellow Mum who is lovely and has an ASD child so we chat a lot, and she's into voice notes, and it drives me nuts. I can easily send a text around the kids, but to listen to a voice note I either have to leave the room or wait until later to listen - and then remember to wait until later, and then feel bad if she was asking a question and can see I've been on WhatsApp and not replied to her. Argh! She means so well though and is really lovely. But I just cannot get on board with the voice note thing!

VNs are so crap. I hate VMs and never listen to them either.

And as for the people saying “so nice to hear friends’ voices” why don’t you let ring them up and have a proper chat rather than just leaving each other VMs?

Doesnt work. My whatsapp status says "DONT SEND ME VOICE MESSAGES" and guess what?? i still get them all the time.

I cannot listen to them at work, whereas I could read a text.

Sometimes I do reply saying I cant listen to it, and wont for a few hours... It makes no big difference.

I also dont own bluetooth headphones and dont want people on public transport to listen to my messages.

JUST TEXT ME DAMMIT!!!!

I am clearly very old (at 35), I have never experienced this! But yes sounds very very annoying.

Not the point, I know, but it also annoys me when people say "the Pret" in London.

There's chuffing loads of them, even within the same station usually.

I first encountered voice notes about 5 years ago when a friend moved to Europe. It was a big adjustment to the relationship as she'd always been round the corner and now wasn't and for her it must have been really, really hard and I got that.

But she tried to stay in touch by sending me what she called "fun" voice notes and they would be ten minutes long of her rambling about getting her car registered in the EU etc.

Like just rambling chat as if we were having a conversation. Except a conversation is an interaction and these were just monologues.

Not encountered them since.

My teens used to attempt them with DH and I while we were both at work and we both just said we cannot listen to messages at work whatever it is just write it out because we can scan it quickly on the notification screen and make sure no one is dead or whatever.

Nope YADNBU!

It’s just another case of “My time is more important than yours”.

There’s a huge Venn diagram overlap between people who are late and people who leave lengthy voice notes.

Very much this. My best friend and I voice note each other all day 9-3 and I love it, we text outside those hours and weekends when others are around. I wouldn't dream of voice noting anyone else ever.

Cannot abide voice notes! Yes - only easier for the sender.

Ive told my ex husband I won’t listen to them, because he started doing this at one point

It takes them as long to record it as it takes you to listen to it. Longer, if they did more than one take.

Can’t stand them. I don’t listen to them. If you want to speak to me, phone me

They have their place. Sometimes it's hard to describe something. When I've sent them it's because I can't figure out how to write it with out and but can describe it better in a vn in a few seconds. But I have a few friends who got way too into them for a wh5ile and I hate listening to them go on for about 5mins

@DarrellRiversCriminalBehaviourOrder yes I know that, but what I meant was that they are far too busy to spend the extra few seconds typing out a message rather than recording a voice note for their own convenience. I have had six of the bastards today and hate receiving them.

You can dictate the messages on both iPhone & Android. I only found out this weekend! My friend goes it all the time & I intend to start doing it.byou do have to read the messages before sending. It won't stop people sending rambling voice notes if that's their thing though. DS does it & I like hearing him but it isn't very convenient!

If the voice note includes logistics, especially times, dates or other numerical information (I got one recently with a list of fecking door codes), it's essentially forcing the recipient to take dictation which is supremely arrogant imo.

God I hate voice notes. The worst is when they say "erm" when they are thinking what to say. Or go off on a tangent and waffle on, so annoying.

Cba to send paragraphs. Vns for the win✅

Another voice note lover here! Close friends only and my mum, my friends are all scattered so it's good to hear their news when it can be tricky to arrange a phone call catch up. Nothing is ever urgent, listen and reply at your leisure. And yes, why wouldn't you want to hear your friends' voices? I don't use them to make plans.

Same, absolutely hate them… especially if I’m at work I don’t have time to listen to a voice note, it’s easier to just skim read and reply…

Oh dear. Until I saw this thread I hadn't heard of VNs (which is what I'll call them now to show that I'm like, down with it). And ting.

Voice notes invite a certain level of banal detail to she shared that wouldn't be via text.

Becomes a stream of consciousness if one isn't careful. Yuk.

I detest them. I always reply by text to show that I’m not following suit. Also I feel if someone wants to ramble on for interminable minutes on a voice note why not just ring and we could actually have a chat. The one sided voice note is a proper drag.

And yes, why wouldn't you want to hear your friends' voices?

I know what they sound like already so why do I need to hear their voices when a text would do?

Omg this is genius

I hate them too.
I don't want to listen to your sodding podcast 🤣

Only have 1 friend that sends them, I hate them too! She walks around in the early hours of the morning sending VN’s to people so I can hear the birds tweeting and her heavy breathing and she leaves 10min messages I need to listen to when she could have taken 2 mins just to write a message. I always message back, how does she not understand I don’t want to participate in this LoL