When will phone calling be obsolete?

[XGoodGuyFitz]

I was just thinking...when will something surpass the usefulness and reliability of phone calling? Or will something surpass it?

[TempestCatto]

Never. It is often harder to explain something over text.

[dizmo]

They're different things. It'll always have it's use.

[WhitetailAni]

I don't see why it will.

Text has one limitation that voice doesn't - you can't convey tone over text.

We do have modifiers like /s, etc., but they're not perfect and sometimes you just need that deadpan delivery to make a joke perfect.

[GDRRiley]

never. we may move over to IP calling from the hybrid system we have today but its not going to go away.

[HumdrumPenguin]

Just now, XGoodGuyFitz said:

I was just thinking...when will something surpass the usefulness and reliability of phone calling? Or will something surpass it?

I’d say whenever internet coverage becomes the same as the very basic carrier coverage, and data is free to use.

[ARikozuM]

When mom finally stops calling to ask what the password to her email account is. STOP IT, MOM! TRY RESTARTING IT!

[bmx6454]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

When mom finally stops calling to ask what the password to her email account is. STOP IT, MOM! TRY RESTARTING IT!

my first thought when i read the topic lol, as long as i have parents i will need voice calling haha.

[Moonzy]

Quote

When will phone calling be obsolete?

-tries to remember when's the last time my phone rang-

 

-not sure if i should cry or be relieved-

[BondiBlue]

Phone calling will be a thing until the human voice is no longer a convenient way to convey a message. 

[Arika]

already is for me.

 

If someone is trying to call me, then it's someone i don't know and/or don't care about. Everyone who knows me knows to text me or email me if they need to contact me. I can't answer calls during work hours anyway.

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, XGoodGuyFitz said:

I was just thinking...when will something surpass the usefulness and reliability of phone calling? Or will something surpass it?

It's already obsolete to me at least, as @Arika Ssaid. Can't recall the last time I called someone on the phone... probably for a job application that I did well over a year ago because they didn't have an in-person or online option, only by telephone.

 

Anytime my phone rings it's never someone I actually know, it's a robo-caller. Texting is just quicker, and less awkward.

[HeroRareheart]

37 minutes ago, XGoodGuyFitz said:

I was just thinking...when will something surpass the usefulness and reliability of phone calling? Or will something surpass it?

I wouldn't say it'll become obsolete, but it may morph and change into something very different from what we know it as now.

[Guest]

I think phone calls are much less used now then ever before.

 

Discord for example is a "call" just not on a "phone"

 

So it's a split picture. You're making a call to someone, just with a different application to accomplish the same thing. 

 

Could "phone numbers" ever become a thing of the past? Well I certainly don't see why not. 

 

(I don't see payphones any more. When I was young, you had to spin the rotor only 7 times to make a "call" XD )

[freeagent]

0 was the worst because it took so long to return to its home position.. and you would force it so it would return a micro second faster.. then then came the rise of the push button lol.. good times!

 

I remember as a kid taking a pin and sticking it on the mouthpiece and touching it to the steel table, then tapping the hang-up and listen for a few ticks in the dial tone.. if you heard that then you were good to go and you save 25c

 

We are a tasteful blend of analogue and digital 

[Uttamattamakin]

The thing about the phone, the plain old telephone system reaches just about everywhere.  Remote villages in Alaska which have no roads leading to the rest of the world have telephones.   Isolated rural dwellings have telephones.  Amish people have a phone in a booth outside their house.  

When the Amish have fiber the phone will be obsolete. 

 

 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

5 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

The thing about the phone, the plain old telephone system reaches just about everywhere.  Remote villages in Alaska which have no roads leading to the rest of the world have telephones.   Isolated rural dwellings have telephones.  Amish people have a phone in a booth outside their house.  

When the Amish have fiber the phone will be obsolete. 

My partner had a hold put on her credit card, mainly because she was crossing the pacific in a warship ordering Uber Eats at different ports across the world while occasionally also sending things to my place.  The ships sat phone was the only way could contact customer service to remove the block.

(The ship has open wifi in some places now, so we mostly use VOIP for voice calls [3 second lag on a VOIP call, woooo, sat internet sucsk], but that only recently became an option, like maybe late 2020.  We'd only have sat calls and email before that point)

[Biohazard777]

To all of the "texting is quicker, more convenient etc." people, let me ask you this, if you are gaming and you are playing ranked do you text your teammates or do you use voice?
Same goes for calling, either hands free or wireless earbuds or speakerphone and voila: your hands are no longer glued to your phone and you can actually do something useful with your hands and eyes.
Talking is on average 130 wpm in conversations, but can go above 200 wpm. Typing on a keyboard or typing on a smartphone with autocomplete is on average 50 wpm, professional typist can reach 100+ wpm. You don't need to be a "pro speaker" to be faster than a "pro typist" .
 

[Heliian]

Never. 

 

Do you know how many billion people are on the planet?  

 

But regardless of that  you still need a network for communicating and some type of device to communicate with.  Speech comms will never die, not in this lifetime or the next.  

 

 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 minute ago, James Evens said:

StarLink  

Doesn't have anything remotely close to global coverage and it's effective coverage areas are mostly over land.  It's also only been lightly tested by the US Military, so it's far being used in actual operational military assets in any other NATO country either.

[Triggeravus]

1 hour ago, ARikozuM said:

When mom finally stops calling to ask what the password to her email account is. STOP IT, MOM! TRY RESTARTING IT!

I finally have my mom trained to text rather than call. She lives 10 minutes away and we see each other at least once a week so let's reserve speech for actual visits.

 

I find any phone conversation to be extremely awkward.  It's hard to know when to talk if you can't see the person and I'm always interrupting.  Especially when said person never stops talking.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Triggeravus said:

I finally have my mom trained to text rather than call. She lives 10 minutes away and we see each other at least once a week so let's reserve speech for actual visits.

 

I find any phone conversation to be extremely awkward.  It's hard to know when to talk if you can't see the person and I'm always interrupting.  Especially when said person never stops talking.  

It's funny you mention mom. Mines been dead 11 years.

Do miss hear voice..... Give her back, I'd let her talk my ear off every day.....

[Spindel]

The technology might change, but conveying messages with your voice isn't going away. 

 

I mean just look at americans obsession with voice controlled appliances to see that communication with the voice isn't going away. 

 

Quick things like "I'm going to be a bit late" or "want to hang out" was replaced for by text 20 years ago for me. But having discussions with remote people, in example for work, works better with voice than text be it with a phone line or an application like Ventrilio, Team Speak, Teams etc. 

 

So many things that has caused confusion or conflict when conveyed by text in for example a e-mail that have been, ande still are sorted by a 2 minute voice call. 

[LogicalDrm]

Talking as way of communication is not going away. The trend has been rather opposite for awhile. With voice assistants, voice controls and even VR.

 

The transition of using basic radio transmission vs internet network might become something. But for now the coverage is way too spotty.

[Mark Kaine]

As long "smartphones" are a thing never.

 

 

13 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

Never. It is often harder to explain something over text.

 

13 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

I don't see why it will.

Text has one limitation that voice doesn't - you can't convey tone over text.

We do have modifiers like /s, etc., but they're not perfect and sometimes you just need that deadpan delivery to make a joke perfect.

I didnt take this as "no voice communication" but as simply not using "phones" anymore.

 

For example if you talk with someome on discord is that really a "phone" call? In a way yes, but its not how i understand the question as voice communication isnt going away anytime soon or ever.