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Right now, I’m using a phone from Helio as my main phone. It’s no secret that we like what those guys are doing — they make full-featured phones for nerds; awesome! — but Helio’s voicemail system only allows for thirty messages.
I get many calls a day, pitches to hear about USB baby-rocking cradles, Firewire-bus-powered lighters, or solar-driven microwave ovens, whatever, it’s more than I can hold if I’m having a busy day, so I skip. No, wait, I always skip.
When your voicemail box is full, people can’t leave messages. I enjoy this, but I’m not the only one. In fact, our big man Michael Arrington points out in this story that it’s something of a guilty pleasure that people can’t leave him voicemail when his mailbox is full, and that gets me thinking: is voicemail dead?
It won’t go away entirely, of course, but when was the last time you listened to an entire message before deleting it? I can’t remember. Nor can I recall the last time I left a message and expected a prompt call back.
All of our cellphones broadcast the number we’re dialing from and they all also report the number coming in. If that number is in your phonebook, you can call back. Rad.
If things are important we text. That inbox is also ususally full, but you can at least glance at it and triage what’s important and kill the “OMG did you hear about danny and maria!?” stuff from last weekend.
My voicemail box is full, and I don’t care. I ask, do you?