In a way, this is a huge relief. I never listen to voice mails, so not having to be bothered by my phone ringing for something unimportant saves me a bit of time and anxiety.
Now I just have to worry about people I know, phone interviews, and debt collectors (who seem to be harassing me less often via phone these days).
A nail in the coffin for voice mail, which I hardly check at all anyway. Automatic transcription has made thee easier to ignore, but if the volume goes up I'll just disable voice mail completely.
I'm not sure anybody actually listens to their messages any more and so I rarely leave them. After all, if it's important, why would you call at all?
I have do not disturb turned on always, but my contacts are exempt, so for people I know it will ring. If I get a call from a non contact they can leave a voicemail. But most of the time it's a robocall. Not having to deal with my phone ringing all the time has been a big improvement.
You dont have to waste time listening to the voicemail. I had my carrier turn off voicemail over 5 years ago, it was the best phone related decision I have ever made.
...I may have also made friends with corporate telephony for a similar reason at work, but I'm not admitting anything.
A year and a half ago, I had voice mail and kept missing things, since I didn't check it zealously enough. People would leave messages with the assumption that I'd listen to them. This assumption was incorrect.
I then switched to a voice mail message that asked the caller to email me, but I still kept missing things - perhaps your contacts would be more polite, but 80% of the people who called me would still leave messages on my voice mail.
I finally got rid of voice mail altogether about a year ago - if I don't pick up, people get the standard 'this voice mail inbox has not been set up' message. I no longer miss things, since people can't leave a message and therefore don't assume I'm on it - they go and find another way to get in touch with me instead.
There were complaints at first - from my girlfriend, from a couple of business associates. It took a couple of months for them to adapt to my new behavior. Now they text me.
I set my Android phone to only ring for callers in my contact list. It pisses me off that the robocallers have won but my life is better without unwanted phone interruptions.
I know this doesn't help your case and may come off as mildly offensive, but I've simply stopped picking up the phone from numbers I don't know (phone set to silent too) a few years ago and it's wonderful.
Coworkers call via Slack or Zoom, rarely phone. Personal friends and family are on my address book so I know when they're calling (and can set custom ring tones if I want to). If I'm not actively trying to resolve something with a bank or health insurance or something, I'm not expecting anyone I don't know to call me. I've never missed a single important call ever since I stopped picking up the phone from random numbers.
I was in the same boat, so I started just leaving my phone silenced all of the time. I almost never get robocalls anymore. Interestingly, it seems like whenever I turn my ringer on because I'm expecting a call I get a robocall. It's probably just coincidence though.
I have important numbers set to come through, everyone else just rings out silently (and I disabled voicemail), either you are a contact and I'll ring back or I just delete the call notification.
Now I just have to worry about people I know, phone interviews, and debt collectors (who seem to be harassing me less often via phone these days).
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