7/07/2006

Answer Tones

I experienced my first answer tone yesterday. An anwer tone for those of you who aren't aware, is an alternate to the standard ring tone that all us CALLERS (rather than answerers) are used to hearing when we call people. Considering that my dad and step-mom have ring-tones (an alternate to ringing for ANSWERING calls), I'm assuming that most people know about these....

At first, the "answer tone" confused me. I called my friend and the next thing I knew I was listening to C.R.E.A.M by Wu-Tang -- for a full 10+ seconds. My first thought was that I called her while she was in the car listening to the radio and she just didn't know that the phone picked up, but once her voicemail came on I was very confused. Then I called back a little later and after about 4 seconds of the Wu-Tang joint, she picked up - and that's when I put it together.

I looked online for anwer tones for my phone, and was very tempted to buy one, but I don't want to make an impulse purchase that callers will find annoying after the first 3 times of calling me. Although I'd like to believe that I would be able to keep it fresh with different tones - we all know that reality will set-in and I'll keep the same answer tone for 4 months without even realizing.

I'm sure people will say it depends on what I pick - and there is a lot of variety. Music, Movie or TV quotes, or even voices (like a sexy woman moaning a guys name)...

So I'm still up in the air on this. The price isn't prohibitive ($0.99 monthly fee plus $1.99 per download), it is more a question of the caller experience. I mean - it won't effect me at all (other than potential drop calls).

And yes - it will be a little wierd for someone calling Brett Goffin (The Google employee) and instead of the expected ring, they hear Biggie saying "Who the hell is this.....paging me at 5:46 in the morning, crack of dawn..." (Yes - this is an available option that I'm considering)

So - I'm still on the fence, but I wanted to share. If you have strong opinions either way - I'm definitely looking for "user feedback"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ron has Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" (bottle of red, bottle of white..) playing when his phone rings (quite appropos for him). We used to have the same ring tone-now we have no question decifering who's getting a call.When I first heard it I thought it was quite unique and liked it immediately.
Mom

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