Why are voice messages disliked in work chats?

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Last year, Rambler&Co conducted a study and found that 48% of respondents do not like voice messages, 23% believe that they are inappropriate, and only 5% prefer this format. We decided to figure out why most employees do not approve of such messages.

It's difficult to immediately determine what we're talking about
When a text message comes into a work chat, a person only needs a couple of seconds to understand how urgent it is and who it is intended for. If it is addressed to a colleague, then you can save time and immediately return to work. With voice messages, it is more difficult: until you listen to it, you will not understand what is required. You will have to spend a couple of minutes more, and you will need another 10 minutes to refocus on the task.

Unable to find anything in chat history
If you discuss a task in written format, you can easily find the necessary part of the correspondence using keywords. For example, you agreed with colleagues on the terms of a new social media marketing service promotion, and in a couple of weeks you needed this data for a report. You quickly wrote the keyword "promotion" in the chat search and found that very message. In order to find this information in audio messages, you need to listen to them again.

Often it is impossible to forward a voice message to colleagues
In a text message, you can copy parts or edit the beginning/end to send the correct information to other people. A voice message often contains a personal message that you can no longer send to employees.


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It is not always convenient to listen to a message
If the specialist is in a noisy place, at a meeting or important negotiations, it will not be possible to listen to such a message. Or he works on a laptop and needs to find headphones, which may not be at hand.

Sometimes technical difficulties arise
The microphone on the phone is not working well, the person is holding the smartphone far away from themselves, or recording a message on the subway in which only the noise of the trains can be heard and not a single word can be made out.

Voice messages are a great help in case of emergency, when you need to urgently resolve an important issue or, for example, you are driving and you do not have the opportunity to write a text. You can see other features of business communication in our free online course " Oral and written communication ". You will learn the principles of effective interaction and will be able to analyze your communication style.