Link: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/03/explain-it-like-im-5-why-is-everyone-on-speakerphone-in-public/

The key to working at a place like Ars Technica is solid news judgment. [eds note: tell that to Benj Edwards] I’m talking about the kind of news judgment that knows whether a pet peeve is merely a pet peeve or whether it is, instead, a meaningful example of the Ways that Technology is Changing our World.

The difference between the two is one of degree: A pet peeve may drive me nuts but does not appear to impact anyone else. A Ways that Technology is Changing our World story must be about something that drives a lot of people nuts.

“But where is the threshold?” I hear you asking plaintively. “It’s extremely important that I know when something crosses the line from pet peeve to important, chin-stroking journalism topic!”

Fortunately, the answer is simple. The threshold has been breached when your local public transit agency puts up a sign about the behavior in question.

Which brings me to the sign I saw yesterday in Philadelphia.

“Unless the tea is REALLY hot, keep the call off speaker,” it said.

(For those not in the US, “tea” in this context means gossip or news.)

I fucking hate speakerphone and don't use it even in my van unless a photo or document is shared during the conversation that needs to be addressed.

People use speakerphone in public because they want you to join in their public conversation.

For me, speakerphone goes on temporarily if I need multiple people to be able to both listen and speak to an existing conversation.

Otherwise, they join the call on their own devices.

I find holding a phone up to my cheek really annoying though; I could see secondary exceptions for people with wireless headphones whose batteries had just died.

I endorse this way to meet new friends both in person and "on line" at the same time

Phones have gotten bigger and heavier. It's easier to hold the device at a lower height when it's on speakerphone. That's my guess.

Many people do video calls too. I always get the urge to stand behind them and start doing funny faces

my personal view of this is that, as phones became something people were on all the time, regardless of what they happened to be doing, more people started using speaker because they are often doing multiple things at once, or need to pay better attention to what is happening around them. I believe that hands free units in cars have also played a part normalizing just using speaker phone, especially when needing to pay attention to what is happening around them in public.

My microphone is broken. People hear me better if I switch to speakerphone.

But why not use headphones?

I like the theory of people seeing stuff on TV (such as the apprentice) where calls are on speaker so it can be heard.

Humans like to emulate what they see, so they copy what they see on the telly

I use speakerphone a lot in my own home too when no one is around. It's just more comfortable to hold my phone in front of me instead of to my ear. Never in public unless specific other people need to hear it.

The way I remember it, on old phones before smartphones, speakerphone was a very obscure feature that many users didn't know how to turn on. I certainly didn't (I was a child at the time) unless someone showed me.

On modern smartphones it's very easy, maybe that should be changed again. 😁

Using speakerphone in public is acceptable in one scenario: your phone’s normal speaker/mic is broken, you don’t have headphones, and a loved one is calling you as they’re dying.

I can totally get behind speakerphone in that precise situation.

Laziness, maybe.

Holding up your hand is harder, tho

It's the same microphone, no?

Logically, you're correct. Having to keep up with one extra thing, however, is probably more of a nuisance to these types of people. Of course, I'm just guessing at this point.

Yeah, I get that, I'm just kind of exasperated at the concept. I see people doing this all the time and it's wild to me

I agree, it doesn't make any sense and it's very inconsiderate to others.

Hearing problems, poor audio quality

I care less about speakerphone than I do Bluetooth headsets or regular phone speaker use near me.

The speakerphone makes more noise!

Yes, but people already have conversations between each other in public where we can hear both sides. We train ourselves to tune those out. A speakerphone is analogous to that case of another human talking.

What I find most disruptive about phone conversations near me versus listening to two other people talking (which I can tune out) is that the speech pattern of a phone user is to say something and then pause. The problem is that that is exactly the signal that someone has said something to you, and that your attention is required. I have a harder time ignoring those one-sided conversations than turning out a conversation where I can hear both sides, because it's basically constantly giving my head the "you just missed something and need to respond" signal. It's like when someone says something to you, waits for a few seconds, and then your attention gets triggered and you look up and say "what?"

Now, the article does also reference someone turning a speakerphone way up, and that I can get, if you're playing it louder than a human would speak. But that's also kinda a special case.

I think that in general, the best practice is to text, and I think that most would agree that that's uncontroversially the best approach in public. But after that, I'd personally prefer to have speakerphone use, above headset or regular phone use.

EDIT: One interesting approach --- I mean, smartphone vendors would always like to have new reasons to sell more hardware, so if they can figure out how to make it work, they might jump on it --- might be phones capable of picking up subvocalization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization

Subvocalization, or silent speech, is the internal speech typically made when reading; it provides the sound of the word as it is read.[1][2] This is a natural process when reading, and it helps the mind to access meanings to comprehend and remember what is read, potentially reducing cognitive load.[3]

This inner speech is characterized by minuscule movements in the larynx and other muscles involved in the articulation of speech. Most of these movements are undetectable (without the aid of machines) by the person who is reading.[3]

You'd probably also need some sort of speech synthesizer rig capable of converting that into speech.

A conversation where someone's using headphones/earbuds and a subvocalization-pickup phone would avoid some of the limitations of texting (not limited to text input speed on an on-screen keyboard or having to look at the display), provide for more privacy for phone users, and not add to sound pollution affecting other people in the environment.

EDIT2: Other possibilities for the speaker side:

Bone conduction

This has actually been done, but has some limitations on the sound it can produce, and you need to have a device in contact with your head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_conduction

Bone conduction is the conduction of sound to the inner ear primarily through the bones of the skull, allowing the hearer to perceive audio content even if the ear canal is blocked. Bone conduction transmission occurs constantly as sound waves vibrate bone, specifically the bones in the skull, although it is hard for the average individual to distinguish sound being conveyed through the bone as opposed to the sound being conveyed through the air via the ear canal. Intentional transmission of sound through bone can be used with individuals with normal hearing—as with bone-conduction headphones—or as a treatment option for certain types of hearing impairment. Bones are generally more effective at transmitting lower-frequency sounds compared to higher-frequency sounds.

The Google Glass device employs bone conduction technology for the relay of information to the user through a transducer that sits beside the user's ear. The use of bone conduction means that any vocal content that is received by the Glass user is nearly inaudible to outsiders.[47]

Phase-array speakers to produce directional sound

Here, you need to have the device track its position and orientation relative to a given user's ears, then have a phase array of speakers that each play the sound at just the right phase offset to produce constructive interference in the direction of the user's ears --- it's beamforming with sound. Other users will have a hard time hearing the sound, which will be garbled and quieter, because of destructive interference in their direction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamforming

Beamforming or spatial filtering is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception.[1] This is achieved by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at particular angles experience constructive interference while others experience destructive interference. Beamforming can be used at both the transmitting and receiving ends in order to achieve spatial selectivity. The improvement compared with omnidirectional reception/transmission is known as the directivity of the array.

We more-frequently use this for reception than for transmission, with microphone arrays, but you can make use of it for transmission. You'll need a minimum number of speakers in the array to be able to play beams of sound with constructive interference in the direction of a given number of listeners.

The only reason I can come up with is because they have oily skin and don't want to get it on their phone. Even that isn't an excuse for being a douche canoe.

I almost punched a guy on the train this week for something similar. He had some music on speaker for a while, then asked „does anyone think this is too loud?“. I told him that actually yes, I think it is to which he replied „well I don’t care“ and turned it even louder.

It was amusing in Star Trek IV, but that seems quaint now.

Sure, but like, use your phone at home instead. It's like people bringing dogs to grocery stores and restaurants (we have something of an epidemic of dogs shitting in food places when they'd have been fine in the yard for an hour here in Austin).

I can see where you're coming from on that at least with speakerphone, you know no one is addressing you. When I was at my ex's last week, she said something from the bedroom, prompting me to loudly say "What?" Her son had just called, and if he'd heard my voice, we'd not have parted ways on good terms.

Most phone glass is oleophobic at this point and has been for years. So that's a shit excuse.

I personally think phones should no longer be manufactured with full size speakers, just the quiet ones, in favor of battery or smth

What irritates me most, people using speakerphone but holding it up right to their mouth. How fucking hard is it to just move your hand about 6 inches further and put the fucking thing next to your ear and use it like a normal fucking phone.

What was amusing in Star Trek was when Spock pinched that dickhead’s lights out.

People with several jobs, children, household errands or some combination thereof can't always time important incoming calls, for which they may have already left several voicemails to receive. Cinema/restaurants, I may be less tolerant.

It's just normal asshole main-character behavior. See ripples of that behavior across society these days.

Because they are assholes who think the world exists for them

If you're starting with "people with several jobs," you're not addressing speakerphone use but rather the collapse of the social contract.

The Kardashians and any reality show that needs to showcase a phone call for the audience. That is exactly how this all got to the level it did. People who watched and were raised on that media learned to use a phone like that and do.

That's my theory.

Not necessarily. The Pixel 9P has three different microphones and they are used differently for different situations (but not all at once). All I can say is the person on the other end can't hear me unless I turn on speakerphone.

You're making me feel very old. Reality TV was what permanently turned me off of linear programming. I gradually started learning about the Kardashians via memes in comments.

The future is now fellow old man (my joints hurt just typing this). If it helps, I remember the comforting noises of a 14.4k modem connecting me to the world wide web.

I blame the lack of a headphone jack.

Done get me wrong, boom boxes were a thing in the 80’s and 90’s, and there is the modern day equivalent of terrible Bluetooth speakers.

But without a convenient $5 tool to quiet your device it’s obvious most people will resort in speaker phones if they want to quickly hear something.

I want to believe it's that others have the same problem as me that holding the phone to their ear+cheek makes that face-part real moist after a minute or two. And I choose to believe the speakerphone-speakers just never realised they could slightly tilt/lift the phone away from their skin and still hear perfectly fine.

But I fear that @its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org might be correct on this topic and it's simply a case of media/influencers portraying phone conversations that way for better filmability.

I think modern phones are just too big. I don't want to hold a tablet up to my face

Personally, I just carry a headset, but if that dies it's only consideration for others that might stop me from putting it on speaker

Good point I haven't thought about. I have a Fairphone 4 and that is pretty much on the brink of what's still okay/comfortable to use one-handed.
(I also looked up the FP6 dimensions, dreading the size increase, but I just found that it's actually slightly smaller than my current phone, yay)

This is about calls though, not music.

Probably how children were raised to speak to people over the phone.

Until the iPhone, I can't think of too many personal phones that could put the call on speaker. So, if families with kids called other family, it was usually a form of one on one calls where people handed the phone off between each other. Nowadays, the default option is to put the call on speaker so everyone can hear everyone else. That set an expectation to where calls are on speaker unless there is a need for privacy.

Just use headphones, how hard is that?

Headphones are still the answer, but it doesn't have to be a headphone jack. Bluetooth works great.

I just start getting into their conversation. Answering both of them, and I don't stop when I get the "wtf" eyes.

¡Advertir! I'm gigantic, so your mileage may vary.

I'm pretty sure Nokias could also do it on the speaker, at least some of them.

But also I have calls on the speaker all the time for a different reason myself: I can walk around and do things with both hands. Sometimes I'll cook on a call, etc. But what kind of a monster does that in public?

Ive done this twice, but most recently,

I was in a doctor's waiting room where an older fella is brainrot scrolling videos. I'm trying to read my book and ignore it, but the sounds are so annoying. So, I as politely as I can, turn to him and ask, "Sir, Im sorry to bother you, it's a bit loud, do you think you can turn it down?" He snaps at me, "Ma'am", he fucking ma'med me, "Ma'am, my volume is only at half, it's fine". I said, "Oh yeah? Bet, mine too" and hit play on the Suicide Silence (deathcore) I queued up.

The first time I did this, the person pulled out headphones immediately (maybt They Art is Murder works better), This guy kept going, so I placed my phone on the floor in front of me and pretended(tried) to read my book until I got called.

Fire with Fire

I'm taking about default behavior. 20+ years ago, the default phone call was pushing a piece of technology against an ear an next to your mouth. That hasn't been the default for a while.