If Apple is so courageous, why not get rid of voicemail?
Everyone agrees voicemail is the fucking worst
I spend a lot of time Googling the unsaved numbers that call my phone. I feel weirdly comforted by the fact that a lot of other people are clearly googling their unknown calls because it means that it’s not just me, basically everybody is wary of answering their phone. Answering your phone is unpleasant, but voicemail is the fucking worst.
Apple says they’re getting rid of the headphone jack on the newest iPhones because headphone jacks are outdated and on their way out. Bluetooth “air buds” are the way of the future. Okay, so if that’s the case then why not eliminate voicemail, a technology that most people agree is not even worth paying any attention to at all in 2016? Eliminating the headphone jack but keeping voicemail on the iPhone 7 is like replacing your doorbell with a camera while also having a fax machine and then claiming to have built the most modern house in history. If your house was really that modern, it wouldn’t have a fucking fax machine.
To make matters worse, Apple clearly knows people don’t give a shit about their voicemails. They sold an earlier version of the iPhone on the ability to make ignoring voicemails easier. Now they’re offering the ability to transcribe voicemails like it’s a good thing? I don’t need to read a rambling, meandering message full of “ums” and “you know what I means” from my mother on my phone. I need her to not be able to leave these messages in first place.
Sure, all kinds of people who are not my mother probably rely on leaving and listening to voicemails ( I don’t know them but I am certain they exist). Apple has already shown they care more about “innovating” their product than they do about the actual needs of their consumers (like the need to not lose a $150 pair of headphones or the need to be able to listen to a podcast during a car trip without having a dead phone upon arriving to your destination.) Fine. So not set your sight on a technology that basically everyone agrees is on the way out?
In 2016, if someone who even slightly tech-savvy has an important nugget of information to get to you quickly, they text you. They don’t leave you a fucking voicemail. If Apple was really so forward thinking and courageous, they would be leading the way in making voicemail a thing of the past, not coddling us into keeping it around. If setting an industry standard for eliminating outdated technology is really an important thing, eliminating the tried and true headphone jack while inventing ways to keep voicemail a thing makes no sense at all.
If you need to get in touch with the author don’t leave her a voicemail!
