The Worst Part of Mobile Phones

The worst thing that has come from the mobile phone market is the "innovation" for what I hear when I call someone. There are two specific instances that I wouldn't miss if they suddenly disappeared:

The "Listen to My Music" Ring

I think it was Verizon that started this horrible trend. Instead of letting me hear a normal ringer like every other phone call, the person I'm calling can choose a musical selection for me to listen to instead.

Why It's Bad

There's a reason that there aren't more services where I can call up, choose a song to listen to and then go: the quality is awful. This, paired with today's Loudness War makes for a blaring of static-y, distorted blips and blops.

If I want to listen to music, I'll pick up my iPod, not my phone. I'm not great at casual phone conversation as it is, why are you making it harder for me?

Additionally, I'm very picky about the music I listen to, and most likely I'm not going to like whatever it is that you're trying to get me to hear. If anything, I should get to pick the song that I hear when I call someone.

The "On the Other Line" Ring

When you call and there's the standard ring that gets appending by a tiny "boop" sound. This means that the person you're calling is on the other line.

Why It's Bad

The extra half-ring puts me in an awkward position. I hate when people call me and I'm on the other line, I never know how to handle it. That said, I don't want to be the guy interrupting things. I'd rather just be sent to voicemail.

And if the person does pick up, there's a 50% chance that they can't talk to you, but they're clicking over to say that they're on the other line and then ask if they can call you right back. This leads me to believe that people don't have an understanding of how their phones work, which I supposed ends up meaning that it's user error striking again.

I'd expand the voicemail system to let you record two messages: an "I'm not here right now" message and an "on the other line" message. The interface for retrieving voicemail should be checking all messages in one place, but how they come in should be branched out to different methods (like the methods I just listed, and maybe an additional message for "Oh I'm here, I just don't want to talk to you right now").

The Solution

Make things work like touch-tone phones and answering machines used to back in the old days. If I'm on the phone, give a busy signal. If I'm not available, let them leave a message. If I'm interested, I'll pick up. I don't ever remember hearing anyone say, "the ability to call someone isn't good enough, I want to outright interrupt their conversation."