Voicemail is Dead

When was the last time you got a meaningful voicemail that you actually listened to?  I am guessing it’s been years. The reason is that no one cares about it anymore, at least that I know of.

When someone calls me and leaves a message, I rarely listen to it.  The only exception I make is if I don’t know the caller.  If it’s someone I know, I will simply call them back from the missed call list on my phone and say something like “I have not had a chance to listen to your voicemail.  What’s up?”  Furthermore, if someone calls me and does not leave a voicemail, I expect they will send me an email if it’s urgent and simply leave me be if it’s not.

Voicemail is so inefficient.  I have to listen to the message, have a pen to scratch down some number or information about things, and then call the person back.  If I don’t have a pen handy, I have to listen to it another time when I do.  If I am meeting someone somewhere, and the “where” is in the voicemail, I have to write that down too.  Not exactly easy, especially when compared to getting the same information via email or text.

With the advent of speech to text, which you get for free with almost any phone system these days and certainly with Google Voice or equivalent services, my voicemails are transcribed for me and sent to email anyway.  So, why would I ever take the time to listen to them?  And, why would you ever leave me a voicemail?  If I am somewhere where I can’t take your call, I can almost always return an email.

I know of some people that will only return calls if you take the time to leave them a voicemail.  I am at the complete other end of the spectrum on this.

If you are still a heavy user of voicemail, it’s time to change your habits.  We stopped using fax because it’s inefficient and awful.  The same will be true of voicemail.

Is it too early to call voicemail dead?  Do you use it, and if so what for?