Voice notes are massive in some countries but not the UK. This is why.

Voice notes are massive in some countries but not the UK. This is why.6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAshitha NageshBBCOn an August day in 2013, WhatsApp, the messaging app now owned by Meta, made an announcement. With relatively little fanfare, they revaled the voice note, the messaging feature that lets you send a clip of your own voice to friends and family."We know there's no substitute for hearing the sound of a friend or family member's voice," the company enthused in a press release.Thirteen years on, receiving a 10-minute clip from a friend, telling you about a complex family feud or workplace drama, is an experience that is loved by some and loathed by others.In places like India, Mexico, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, voice notes are almost matching the popularity of written texts as the preferred form of electronic communication.But curiously, the truth is that compared to many places, Britain never seems to have quite caught the voice note bug.ReutersBritain does not seem to have quite caught the voice note bugA YouGov survey of more than 2,300 British adults, published this month, found that while voice notes have become slightly more popular in the last year, still only 15% communicate via voice note regularly (i.e. a few times a week). Across men, women, and across every age group - including Gen Zs - voice notes were the least popular method of communication.And in 2024, YouGov found that Britain was the most voice note-averse country of the 17 mostly rich nations it surveyed, with 83% of respondents saying they prefer text based messages to voice notes (and only 4% saying they prefer voice notes).So, why do voice notes prove so divisive? And why have they taken some countries by storm, while failing to truly take off in Britain?A happiness boostIn 2011, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US measured how a group of children's hormones reacted when they got phone calls from their...