Already a subscriber?As I toiled through some phone-based admin on a recent dreary morning, a notification popped up that shook me to my core. A friend appeared to have left a one-minute-long voice note in a 13-member group chat.
Voice notes are a highly divisive medium of communication. There are those, like me, who enjoy both leaving and listening to them; those who enjoy receiving them but not recording them, or vice versa; and then there are those who detest them and feel very strongly about that. Innumerable column inches have been devoted to decrying how invasive, self-indulgent and inconsiderate they are.
None of these rules need be adhered to. Indeed, one of the great joys of a voice note is that – as long as you are leaving it for someone who feels affectionately towards you, and who doesn’t hate voice notes – you can really relax and be yourself. “Er, what was I saying?” hiccups and all.Which brings us to our first rule: only ever leave voice notes for someone you are confident likes you. A voice note is a demand on someone else’s time.