Record, Send, Wait

You’re so youthful, sending those voice messages! My collegue tells me on Whatsapp.

What, you mean I’m no longer young? I think, but restrain myself from saying out loud.

Instead, I reply, Once you get past how silly your own voice sounds, it’s quite addictive. No more poking at tiny iPhone letters with Godzilla fingers.

It dawns on me that exchanging voice messages isn’t really that different from making an actual phone call. But at the same time, it’s definitely not a phone call. You might even call it the exact opposite: you’re leaving the calling bit out, and just talking.

It is a funny exchange, actually. I leave you a voice message, and you reply with your voice message, and then I reply again, and sometimes we’re both recording at the same time. While I’m still speaking of the thing from my first message, you’re already on another topic.

I love it.

I wonder if the inventors of the Whatsapp voice message function initially wondered if it would take off at all?

Inventor A: Why would someone have a conversation like this? Why not simply call?

Inventor B: Well, see, if you’re an introvert, you don’t want to call. This way you can avoid it but still avoid typing a message, too.

Inventor A: But if introverts are our target audience, won’t they hate how their voice sounds?

Inventor B: Maybe we’ll add a filter? They’ll never know. Anyway, it still beats calling!