Just about voice messages

It has been a lifesaver on WhatsApp for years: the voice message. I know people who really only communicate via voice message (hello Fred van Leer) and I understand the advantage. It goes quickly and you can record something while walking through the supermarket. It's fast and you can add a vocal nuance that is often missing in a text message. Really. I also like to use the voice message.

But
There are also disadvantages. And there are many. First of all, they are almost always too long. I had one recently that, I kid you not, lasted eight minutes. Eight. That's just criminal. In this case, thankfully, it was from a very interesting person (and I secretly played it at speed 2), but in general, a voice message should not be longer than a minute. This is also a huge note to self, because I can easily fill my time chatting like this.

Furthermore, listening in is a thing. You can't listen to a voice message with your ear (at least, I can't) and you want to be alone when you listen. For all you know, someone is sharing confidential matters with you and you unintentionally share that with the people around you. That makes it tricky again.

Moreover, you can't easily look something up like you can with another written message.

I find sending voice messages very nice, but receiving... I prefer a written variant for that. But that's quite selfish, isn't it? Shall we just stop with it?

A girl laughing while holding a cup with a building in the background This message does not apply to Trijntje, because she just sings something to me and I can a: listen to it for hours and b: everyone can listen in.