Everything Is Content - Everything In Conversation: To Voice Note Or Not To Voice Note

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Happy Wednesday EIChatters!To voice note or not to voice note, that is the question. In a piece for the Independent from the start of the year Helen Coffey explored whether a rise in voice notes has helped kill the art of conversation. She writes that despite being an initial sceptic about voice notes and finding them awkward and less useful than a phone call, she has since come around and become a primary source of communication in her circle.A 2025 survey commissioned by Sky Mobile found that 62% of voice note recipients had experienced ‘voice note fatigue’, and 20% said they’d personally received a voice note longer than 10 minutes. More than one in ten said they received over 10 voice notes a day, and 44% said they listened at double speed to get through them quicker. There’s also apparently a geographical element to this that suggests the UK is actually lagging behind other countries in our adoption of recorded messages. A 2024 YouGov survey found that 48% of Indian respondents either preferred receiving voice notes or liked them just as much as texts, compared to just 18% of people in Great Britain. We dive in with your help!We hope you enjoy, as always please do rate, review and share us with a friend :) Kisses! O,R,B xThe inexorable rise of voice notes: ‘I’m thinking of you – I just don’t want to speak to you’VOICE-NO! Brits call time on long voice notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth, I'm Ruchera and I'm Anoni. And this is Everything in Conversation. The content warm up before the big race on Friday. We'd love you and we mean absolutely you to take part in these conversations. Whether you're agreeing or disagreeing with us, we want to hear from you. And you can share all of your takes by following us on Instagram at Everything is ContentPod. That's where we decide on topics and have your involvement. voice note or not to voice note, that is the question. In a piece of the independent from the start of the year, Helen Coffey explored whether a rise in voice notes has helped kill the art of conversation. She writes that despite being an initial skeptic about voice notes and finding them awkward and less useful than a phone call, she has since come around and they've become a primary source of communication in her circle. And she's not alone. Data released last December showed that nine billion voice notes are sent every day. And in one year, the average person spends about 150 hours sending.

and receiving them. But she wonders, aside from being a convenient way to communicate with your friends on the go, are we losing something by choosing to record a monologue rather than just picking up the damn phone or having a back and forth over text? A 2025 survey commissioned by SkyMobile found that 62% of voice note recipients had experienced voice note fatigue and 20% said they'd personally received a voice note longer than 10 minutes. More than one in 10 said they received over 10 voice notes a day and 44% said they listen to them at double speed to get through them quicker. There's also apparently a geographical element to this that suggests the UK is actually lagging far behind other countries in our adoption of recorded messages. A 2024 UGov survey found that 40% of

Indian respondents either preferred receiving voice notes or liked them just as much as text compared to just 18% of people in Great Britain. There are a few theories about this that float the idea that voice notes are easier for people in multilingual cultures who may speak several languages but not read as fluently in all of them. As well as a theory that British people are more emotionally reticent than other groups and therefore don't love having to perform one half of a conversation. This is obviously a bit of a stereotype but as three Brits I think we're allowed to say it. So I'm actually really curious to know your thoughts on this but I am a voice noter. I also feel like I probably say my most intimate things over voice note than a text, like a written-out text.

And I'm not sure why that is. I think it's just the free flowing, you know, stream of consciousness of it to the point that when you posted your stories for this on everything's content pod, I saw that you screenshoted a voice note that I must have sent to the group. And I got confused looking at the bit on the right-hand side, thinking that I'd sent a 13-minute voice note to you both. and it immediately made me feel humiliated and mortified. But I realized the bit on the right is the time and the bit on the left is how much you send. But I think that says, it's in me.

I could send a 30-minute voice note. Okay, with that out of the way, with that cleared off my consciousness, what is your relationship to voice notes? And do you think the UK needs to race ahead? Do we need to catch up? We had a message from Paris that said voice notes are great for the sender,

but a burden for the listener, and I'll die on this hill. And Paris, I am with you, babe. I don't really ever send voice notes. I have to say, unless I literally am like incapacitated to text and I have to reply to something and it's easier to hold down and send a voice note. I will send one in that context. And the only other time, really, is if I've got a big story to tell.

You know, and your friends are like, oh my God, what happened? You're like, wait, I'll tell you in a minute. And then you're like, okay, settle in. Then I'll send a voice note. But I'm not an off-the-cuff sender of voice notes. And I went to a phase of someone sent me a voice notes. note, I thought I had to reply with a voice note. Now I just live text respond, which I think is a really bad way of communicating where I'll have like a two minute voice note as I'm listening.

I'm sending sentences back in response. What about you? I'm the same. I think if I receive one, people have maybe learned not to send me them now because I'm not, I sometimes will wait a whole weekend thinking, oh, I'll get to it, I'll get to it, I'll get to it. I'm always finding something else to do. So now they just send it in messages. But I don't receive many. I don't send any, basically. I think if it all gets a voice note from me, it's because I've sat on my phone or something. That happens quite a lot. I'll just realize I've been recording and I've been walking around the house singing or something. I'm like, quick delete. They're not my mode. They're just not for me. I think maybe because I'm not a big phone call it either. I just love the written word. Although sometimes I think maybe it's more incriminating to send everything written down. Maybe you've got more of a criminal mind to me, Richard, and you're getting it all.

on voice note. I just don't, it's harder to screenshot maybe. I don't know. I'm just, I've never been a fan. I will see the messages we got, loads of pro voice noters who will get to the messages have all made me feel a bit more fondly and more pro voice note. They have slightly changed my mind because apparently there's a lot of good reasons. I, what you said about it being a burden to receive one is so true. I'm so selfish in that I love to send them, but I will wait three to five business days, just like you said, Beth, to listen back or even to reply to anyone else is. I love to dish it out. I hate to receive. It's because you have to remember, you start replying to something they've said and then they change what they've said and then

you've got to like, you almost have to make notes with a voice note. I have some friends who have formed for sending voice notes for like absolutely no reason. And I maybe should be more like Beth and kind of just up front, just say like stop it. But they, I have two friends who voice knit me and I think, oh, fuck. Oh, not the dread of a voice note. I have received 20 minute voice notes. I will say. Stop. Yeah, which is at that point it's so impossible to reply to because you forget every detail. I will say as well, I feel like there's etiquette with voice notes.

And I don't know if this has become law, but it should do. You can't make plans over fucking voice note. You cannot say, oh, I'll meet you tonight at 5pm over voice note. That's not fair. So that's my one rule. Only one rule. Do you know what I just thought weirdly? Sometimes I do some voice note on Instagram DMs, but not on WhatsApp.

I don't know why. So you are a voice noter. That is voice note. I only remember because I actually weirdly voiced Chloe Laws the other day. For some reason I just thought it's very odd but the reason it made me think of it is when you said you received a 20 minute voice note.

I could never do that because invariably if I send a voice note, the other thing I do is I have to listen to it before I send it and then I don't like it. So then I delete it and then I have to listen to it again. So I couldn't do a 20 minute one because I'd be there all day. That's too self-conscious for me. We got a message from Amy said,

voice note when I'm in a rush only and Kim said voice notes have one use to tell a non-urgent story. Important info needs to be a test. People have sort of their own personal rules, but there doesn't seem to be a rule across the board. I almost feel like I'm not a great voice not a great storyteller, I like talking on the pod, but I do find myself getting a bit confused and a bit lost, but I know what I'm there to talk about and I can refer back to notes, whereas when I'm leaving a voice note, I don't know what I'm saying, I'm freewheeling. And if I was a better storyteller, that wouldn't matter because they would be in for the ride.

With me, I'm this like, oh, and this made me think of this and this. And they're, likely to be there being like, this is the first and last, I'll listen to. So I almost feel like there should be a voice note license and you have to qualify. I think I would still have my provisional, whereas maybe the two of you are more concise and you'd be allowed to send them. But I think some people should simply not have that button on their phone and I should be one of them. I love my brother-in-law, but he has form for sending the longest voice notes. He goes, hey, noons. So we literally all, and he's the sweetest man in the world, but they are so long.

You have to listen to someone double speed. And it takes a really long, to the point where you'll be halfway through and you think, I'll just finish this later and you never get to what he was actually saying. And then I don't reply for weeks. Oh, that is so, I don't know, that is so endearing to me. It is sweet. It is sweet. I will say as well, when you're out of podcasts, that's when I actually go through my, like,

roster of voice notes that I've saved up for a few days. That's probably not very kind, actually, because I just saved them up. But it works well for me. There were so many people kind of saying that they love voice notes because they are, like, mini podcasts. and we had a message from Ames who loves a voice note and she said, because she loves podcasts, that is why she loves her voice knows. And she says, me and my house might have a thing

where if we have a story to tell, before we go to work, we'll say, don't tell me now, give me a podcast for the commute. It's girly storytelling at its best, which maybe I didn't think of it that way as kind of an oral tradition and should be protected under a feminist convention. But it is quite nice, actually,

of just saying you have to go to work, you have to climb into the capitalist machine. Here is a little glimmer of a funny story. Maybe it is, if you're a good storyteller and you like them, it's a little gift friend to friend. I quite like that. Those are the ones I like. We do do that in my group chat and it'll be like settling. And I remember when we were single as well, it would be so exciting.

Someone would have gone on a day or something. And we'd be like, send us the voice note. And in fact, one of my best friends just got engaged and she phacimed all of us. And I was on the train map from the Eurostar. And then she's like, she's going out for dinner and we were like, can you send us a voice note? And she didn't send us a voice note for like two days. And we were literally like, can you send us a voice note with the details. And then she sent the most detailed thing of the like, we.

before the proposal leading up until the present day. And that was great because you don't, you obviously do respond. But what I don't like is when you look at your phone and there's a voice note with no context in the middle of the day and you think, what is this about? Oh, my mind goes straight to they're telling me they hate me. This is the breakup of our friendship,

especially when it's like, I don't know, a three minute or something. What concise thing can be said in three minutes? It must be, I hate you. Jess actually message, and I thought this was hilarious. She said, it really depends. Some friends, I'd say we communicate in a mix of messages, voice notes, calls and in person. Voice notes are helpful to explain something if you're on the move or you have a juicy story to tell, which is exactly what you said and only.

But I had a friend who would voice note me continuously with extremely long stream of consciousness voice notes, almost like I was her journal or therapist, and it really felt like I was being used to dump. I do think they do lend themselves to people monologuing at each other. In this particular case, I did raise it with a friend that in the last three months, we'd only spoken about her, and she hadn't asked a single question about my life. So it was part of a wider problem, which thankfully we did resolve. But honestly, the idea of catching up with a friend just through this medium of long, unedited voice notes, fills me with dread. I think if there's no back and forth in a conversation, it can become narcissistic.

I think that is such an interesting point, and I do think there's maybe a bit of a stereotype of us just all speaking into the void, and none of us actually talking to each other or having a actual conversation which does make me feel a bit, oh, I hope I'm not doing that. But yeah, a really good point from Jess. I think it's interesting in this idea of it being like self-involved because we had a couple of messages like that.

And Sally said it really depends. If it's a work colleague that's really just too lazy to write out their thoughts and text form, I think it can be very selfish. Whereas if it's a friend, it can be easier and maybe even fun to have a more personal note, but it'll never actually beat talking to someone and they sometimes give me a lot of anxiety that I need to unpack.

But I do think it is that. And I have to say, when I have sent voice notes, because I don't, I would never do them unless it's like a fun story. It is that thing of you just have to get it. You're like, fuck, I can't be asked. Right. Okay, I'll just voice note them. Mine are never, I don't think they're either full of pleasure

because I'm telling a really good piece of gossip or they're like, oh, can't fuck me bothered right. Here you go. And then it is quite selfish. It's the idea that they're narcissistic as well. I can imagine that's just your primary mode of contact with someone. And then you find out all this time they found it really self-involved. Like, what is the etiquette for telling someone?

I mean, I typically, I just, obviously, I'm not hitting play and they're getting ignored, which is really rude of me, but I don't know how else to do it. What is, what is the way that you approach this with someone and say, the way that you record your voice makes me hate you, it grates on me. And Jordan says, finds them a very intrusive mode of contact. I feel like once you listen, you have to reply immediately, so you remember what has actually been said. And again, I think that's it. It's everyone in these dispersed communities trying to find a way that work. And it turns out nothing. It's all imperfect. Even if you like them, I think people are going like, they're imperfect. Means I have to apply the next day. That's fine. But it's this nice ongoing thing for Jovan. And I think for me, I feel an immediate burden of responsibility. And I also do feel dread because I do think I'm immediately in trouble. And I don't know why anyone would send me a voice note to tell me I'm in trouble. But that's what I think. I think, I better not open that. All hell will break loose. And all hell has never broken loose.

You've put too much power on the voice note. The voice note controls your life. That's what I'm sensing from what you said. I just, I find it really funny because also the aesthetics of somebody walking on a street, recording a voice note, kind of like, you know, phone perpendicular, so you're speaking right into the mic, I just find it so funny.

Like, not even in a judgy, horrible way. I just find the aesthetic of it so iconic because it just feels like, wow, something important must be going down for that person, their voice noting. That's sacred time. So I just, I can't take any of it too seriously, to be honest. I just think it is a bit silly. I think also I love a phone call.

So this is, this is the 2020s version of being able to pick up the phone and call someone because no one wants to do that. I just, it's, it's the middle ground, I think, because in a way, yeah, it might be selfish because you're burdening somebody with this unknown entity of a voice note. But I guess in a way, it's more selfless than just picking up the phone. phone and assuming that they could do an hour on the phone, you know? I think some of the articles that we're reading made me feel more positively about them because they also make the link between voice notes and phone calls. And they did a, I think it was a 2011 study at a university in America, found that they were measuring the changes in children's hormones when they received a text from

their parents versus a phone call. And when they got a phone call and heard their parents' voice, the stress, the cortisol went down, sets of stress hormone. And the oxytocin, which the hormone involved in bonding in relationships, went up and people are theorising like maybe it's the same thing that happens with voice note. Obviously not to me. I'm a bit of an outlier. But if that is the case, then I'm very pro voice note.

I think I'm just seeing them through a lens of is this more digital, is this more removed, is this encouraging connection? To me, a text conversation that's ongoing feels really connected. It feels really retro because that is what we grew up doing. And anything that feels a little bit too new age, I automatically assign it must be of this AI age. it must be divisive. We're just talking about ourselves. But maybe the science is back to the idea that this actually is a really nice thing. And again, I am a Luddite. Yeah, see, it's funny. Mine is so on me when I don't like a voice note because it's very much that thing. I do,

I'm really bad. I'm famously bad at replying to my text. I'm good to reply to you guys because we have to talk about it for work. And then I have like six people that I'm in constant dialogue with. So I'll always reply to them. But if someone messed me out the blue that I haven't spoke to in ages, I probably won't reply, which is awful. But if you send me a voice note, I will respond because it triggers this thing of like shit and I send all those mini messages. But funny enough, my favorite thing to do is actually FaceTime. Like I love, I don't even like phone calls anymore. Like I walk down the road out loud talking to people on FaceTime, which is really probably quite bad.

And I FaceTime my mum literally just every time I'm doing anything anywhere, I just FaceTime her. And she always answers and I love it. And I'll FaceTime my partner, he FaceTime me from the kitchen. We're just having a chat. Like I love FaceTime. But I really don't like voice notes as a receiver, even though when my friends send them, I actually get the feeling of, oh, this is cute that they're telling me about their day, but also at the same time, please just send in a text. The FaceTime thing really just makes me feel like that is a Kardashian thing because you know how they're always FaceTime each other.

They're always seeing each other and they're always FaceTime each other. It's just like lying on the couch, like iPhone up. I don't know why. I just, for me, it doesn't feel like a UK thing that like living your life with FaceTime. It just feels like such an American thing. and it's literally only because of the Kardashians. I do try and face time, you too, sometimes as a group. Do you?

What, we don't pick up? You have not picked up before, but I have called you after we've had a call. I'm always, whenever we had a call, I face-time the group, and very often you don't answer. We're on the toilet by then. Oh, my gosh. I genuinely don't feel like I'm receiving that. That's so crazy.

Oh, sorry. It's okay. So from this, there was a SkyMobile observer, which we mentioned earlier, 91% of people would rather send them receive a voice note, which makes sense. It's like everyone kind of loves the sound of their own voices. But that does seem like an incredibly high. For something that is growing in popularity, I mean, it's slower and slower in the UK,

but still growing in popularity. It does feel like people are having the time of their life recording them. And then the minute that they have to receive one, they're horrified. And then there was a list of things that their voice note pet peeves, which was no clear point or rambling, overuse of fillers, e.g. Yeah, like, talking too fast, too slow. Modern logging messages. I mean, is this describing our podcast?

I was like, hang on a minute. The amount of likes I snip, snip, snip when I edit this podcast is, yeah, you're lucky, guys. You'll never know that. We'll never release it. Also, we had so many messages about the way that voice notes are this amazing thing that can bridge people across the world or, you know, in different phases of their life. We had a message from Malvika who said, as first-gen immigrant living in the UK, I love voice notes as it's the best way for me to keep in touch with my friends who live across time zone. I just, that is beautiful and it also makes so much sense because I have tried to book in calls with people who live in different countries, you know, throughout my life. And it is a nightmare.

It's an actual scheduling nightmare. So voice notes seems like the perfect thing for that. I really see it. This is making me think I have a friend who lives in Australia and we're awful at replying to each other because one of us will send a message light and they will live the night and the other one responds next day. And I was like, actually, maybe I do like voice notes. We just need to have rules and regulations around them. I actually might set up a thing with my friend in Australia where we go, you send me a long voice note and I'll reply in long form. I think what stresses me out is the fact that we're operating on two different mediums. Like if we're WhatsApping, I'm expecting a text. So if I get a voice note, it throws me. Maybe if there was like

a specific voice noting app, not that I need any more apps in my life where you knew you were receiving voice notes and maybe it transcribed them as well. Because I do like the first listen, the stressful minute is when you're trying to remember the thing they said and then they change subject, which triggers the whole like, I've got to reply instantly. But I think I could come round to voice notes, it's the surprise voice notes. That's what I don't like. When I'm expecting one and it's like a good story, I like it. When it comes out of the blue, I don't like it. WhatsApp needs a transcription service. Not that we need to be giving them more power, but that does seem like a actual good thing. We got a message from Sarath who said, I think the reason the UK

is slower to catch the voice note bug is because we have a higher literacy rate than, for example, country state Pakistan when my family lives. When communication via technology was rising, we were quick to jump on texting and type messages in the UK. However, in Pakistan, I remember my family were quick to jump on Skype, video calls, etc. And messaging there was not possible due to the fact that English literally was low. And I think it's so interesting. I really will take on a topic like this and I'll be like, this is very cut and dry. It's personal taste, this, that and the other. And then there are so many different like splinters off it, including the messages we got from a couple of moms who said, one, I'm holding the baby. I can't really type. Two, I've got my

young child that I don't really want to be typing on my phone while my baby's awake and aware. And so the voice note is a really nice way, as well as kind of when the baby's babbling on the back of the voice note, it's this really nice, unexpected moment that they send to their friends and family. And I was reading this thinking like, oh, I am a bit of a crone. I'm a bit of a killjoy because they're actually, the minute you participate in something like this, which is spoken word and voice and real live, unedited moments. It's actually lovely. And there I am, proofreading a text to send to my boyfriend. I'm like, maybe there's more to life. Yeah, you're right. It does. It is actually, we're just curmudgeonly. We're just big old commodians. I always expected it and here's the proof.

And actually, that is true. When I'm at my sisters, it used to make me laugh. I come upstairs and I'd be like, what are you doing? And she would be voicinating all of her friends and they all be voicing her bad. And it's obviously because it's like a group of moms. She would just be voicing like all day long. That's so cute. Yeah. It is. cute actually why don't we voice note each other it would be awful if we tried to have this podcast over voice notes i cannot send the amount of messages we send each other every single day is it would break your phones oh my gosh there's been times where i've been doing something during the day or like just out and then we've had to catch up on something 200 messages oh my god in three hours like the

sickness in my tummy when i'm like i have to read all that can somebody do a tl t r please yeah like half of them relevant business, the others, vibes memes, talking about the messages themselves, I can only apologize. Voice notes. This podcast is basically a voice note. It's a spruced up voice note that you all get to receive. Everything is a voice note. If you really think about it, I don't want to explain more. That's it. We did have a message from Lauren who said, it's funny. I was walking around voice notes to my friend the other day when I did have a sudden burst of self-awareness and thought, I've just been spewing my every thought at her one way for five minutes. Am I a narcissist? This is not good communication, lol. Self-aware queen. I love Lauren. Maybe really the voice

note is the memoir, the modern memoir. All of that said, we actually do welcome your voice notes at home. Obviously, if I open the message, good luck getting that played. But you might get an only or Ruchera. And I'm open to changing my ways. So hit record and join the pod. Thank you so much for listening and for all of your opinions and takes on this topic. We read and appreciate every single one. Please also give us a follow at Everything is Content Pod on Instagram and TikTok. And please give us a review wherever you listen if you haven't already. We'll see you as always on Friday.

Bye. Bye.