Your mobile phone rings. Who answers it?

The home phone is dying. That’s not the same thing as the landline dying. Business still have as many landlines as ever. Homes do not. In 2004 almost 100% of homes in the US had landlines. By 2014 that figure was down to just over 50%.

With the loss of the home landline we have lost something else. When the home phone rang anyone could answer.

The phone rang. It was your aunt wanting to speak to your mother. But you answered the phone so you got to speak to her for a bit. Then you passed the phone to your mother.

The phone rang. It was your mother-in-law calling for your wife. You answered so you got to say hello. Then you passed the phone to your wife.

With the house phone when it rang and you answered you got to speak to people unexpectedly. Now…

Your mobile phone rings. Who answers it?

You do. You answer your phone. Your phone is normally close to you. In your pocket. On the desk beside you. If someone else has your phone when it rings they’ll hand it back to you. They won’t answer it. You can call them back if you can’t answer just then.

They won’t answer it because answering someone else’s mobile phone is a breach of an invisible barrier. Privacy has something to do with it. But it is more that a person’s mobile phone is part of their personal space. There’s an invisible barrier of space around a person and we instinctively know not to break it. And yes, sometimes a person will answer your mobile and breach that invisible barrier just as sometimes a person will breach your personal space. In both cases it’s uncomfortable.

So we lose those conversations. Conversations that help us to better know the people close to those close to ourselves.

We don’t have to allow those conversations to be lost. We can do something about it. We can create tools.

Tools such as software that would link phone numbers. So that for particular callers the phones of two or more designated mobiles would ring at the same time. Or tools to allow call sharing so that when someone calls that the recipient can decide to add others in the household to the call. This way others can join the conversation.

Sometimes we lose things with technological development. If we care enough about those things we can build them back in.

Boomboxes are obnoxious. As is any other way of playing music in public places that disturbs others. That’s why we have headphones – so that we can listen in public, privately, and without bothering anyone else.

Headphones are great if you want to listen alone but not so good if you want to include others in what you’re listening to. It’s a problem we haven’t really solved yet. You don’t want a solution that includes wires. Wires restrict movement. Two people walking down the street connected by their headphones. Wires make it awkward and weird.

It needs to be a wireless solution. The problem is easily solvable with today’s technology. You just need an app. As I’m not a programmer there are likely obstacles I’ve not thought of. Though I suggest that these problems are not with the possibilities in the programming language but with what is permissible by the gatekeepers. Things such as interoperability  between competing mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows and whatever else). Or restrictions put in place on developers by licences. 

The app would simply need to allow you to broadcast the audio you’re playing (via bluetooth, wi-fi or other), to a localised area (twenty metres or so) so that people you approve would be able to listen in (once they are within that localised area). You should be able to play playlists from various music services by connecting your account. Same with podcasts and any audio you have on your device.

Another feature of the app would be the ability to speak to those listening to the broadcast without removing your headphones. This would be great for people running together who want to listen to music and talk at the same time. It could even be used by a coach to pass instructions to those in the group. Using this feature could be independent from the music so that everyone can choose their own music to listen to but still be able to hear and speak to the rest of the group.

No doubt there are issues that would come up in development but I have no doubt that they would be solvable.

My wife and I work from home and listen to music while working most days. Recently we bought two Sonos speakers to do that. One for upstairs and one for downstairs. We went with Sonos because the speakers can connect to each other to play the same music on one speaker or all. They do that job pretty well but there’s more jobs they could do.

There are apps (such as Voxer) that allow you to use your phone as a walkie talkie. Why not something that would connect to your wireless speakers to use them as a PA system. Could be very handy to let someone know that there was a cup of tea waiting for them and to hurry up before it goes cold. This could be integrated into the Sonos app itself. As it turns out an app already exists, Sonos Voice, that does the job. It’s not made by Sonos and has some issues with delays but it works fine.

Much of the other jobs I can think of are variations of automation. Chiming at the top of the hour. Pause a playlist and switch to news radio at a particular time everyday and switch back again five minutes later. If someone is out of the house to announce the person is on the way home once they pass a certain distance from the GPS coordinates of the house.

No doubt there are plenty more possibilities and no doubt they will happen in time.