If you send or receive voice notes, what's the optimal length range for notes you send and notes you receive? Is it different? Does it depend on the other parties in the conversation?
I'm really curious how (casual, personal) voice notes work for you.
I used to have a friend who regularly sent me 30+ minute voice notes on Signal. It stressed the hell out of me, because there's no way to listen to part of a voice note (at least not that I know of) and bookmark your spot and even turned up to 2x speed, that's 15 minutes of message. I don't always have 30+ minutes of uninterrupted time and focus.
I do best around 3 minutes max and can stretch to up to 5 minutes for receiving, and try not to go beyond that (although I will sometimes).
But I've noticed that I have two friends with whom I regularly exchange voice notes (in both directions) that are 6-8 minutes, and that works for us in context. interesting.
I have one friend I exchange voice notes with a lot (vs text), and we've both taken to recapping the note we're responding to (in our time-shifted conversation) so we can both follow along, and that works well for us.
We'll also both intersperse some text messages that work as way points for navigating the conversation. For us, it's a great system.
It doesn't always work out, but I tend to leave voice notes that correspond to paragraphs, that also have tonal unity -- you can respond to them with a single emoji.
If the tone shifts and more than one reaction emoji is warranted, then I usually break off a new voice note.
(This is largely unconscious and probably due in part to years of writing & editing that inform the rhythms of my speech.)
@ShaulaEvans a f you ask me, the optimal length for a voice note is zero seconds.
I hate them because they take time to listen to, much longer than reading- and they encourage the sender to just keep on yapping.
I tolerate them from people who drive cars for work (parents with young kids, taxi drivers). Everyone else can damn well type out whatever they have to say.