Hampton’s friend group consists of mums who are often too busy for long phone calls and want messages that feel more intimate than a text. It’s easy for them to exchange bite-sized recordings throughout the day to listen and respond to whenever they have a spare moment.

“I found, especially during the day, having a broken-up schedule and running around with kids, it’s a great way that you can just leave a little bit of a story and then come back,” she said. “I get really excited when I see a bunch of voice notes in my thread, because I know it’s something good to listen to. So sometimes I’ll save them [for] when I have a drive.”

Senders: Don’t be boring

Hampton’s voice notes conversations with her friends used to be stiff and sort of awkward, she said, but they’ve since become more comfortable and creative. Now, they segment them like mini podcasts – at times getting serious and dumping their grief in the messages. Hampton sends anywhere from five to 20 voice notes a day, mostly to the people she knows who “speak fluent voice memo”.

Whether it’s a tear-jerking venting session or a juicy development in your dating saga, don’t hold back when recording a message. Allowing that extra layer of personality to shine through is what makes this feature special.

Senders: Edit yourself

Like Hampton, Mimi Drabik, 24, usually sends audio notes only to her close friends. “But I have sometimes had friends send me voice notes, and it actually made me feel like I was better friends with them than I thought before,” she said.

Drabik has noticed that Gen Z is a big fan of the voice note. The 2023 YouGov/Vox poll found that 43% of US adults aged 18 to 29 used audio messaging at least weekly.

But she and her friends don’t send their stories in small chunks. Instead, they limit each story to a succinct voice note that lasts two or three minutes, with maybe a quick follow-up note if any key details are missing. “I don’t want to go on and on, so sometimes, if I realise I’m just rambling with my friends or … somebody I’m not as close with, I’ll try to redo it and phrase everything a little bit better,” Drabik said.

After you record, play it back and ask yourself: to send or not to send? Some thoughts are perhaps better suited for an audio journal.

Receivers: Don’t be afraid of the long voice note

For Megan Clouse, a 54-year-old photographer and writer, the long-winded voice notes are often her favourites.

She found one friend’s nearly five-minute-long voice note so funny that she ended up printing a transcript of it.

“Wow, that was just, like, a really long, self-centred voice message,” her friend said near the end of the memo. “Sorry, I’m going to send it anyway ’cause I went through the trouble of telling you all these things, and maybe you need to know them. I don’t really know.”

Receivers: Take notes as you’re listening to make replying easier

To stay organised and remember what she wants to say in reply to the two-to-10-minute-long memos, Clouse learned a hack where she types a text with her initial reactions while listening. Then, she records her audio message while looking at the outline. Hampton also sometimes jots down notes to help her hit all the discussion points and remind her of what she wants to say in her reply.

Even the most masterful voice note composers must face the music on this one: it’s hard to keep up with every single point made in a minutes-long audio message. Having a cheat sheet can save you from the stress of replaying voice notes and the zapped energy of recording multiple takes.

Senders and receivers: Use voice notes to stay connected with long-distance loved ones

Just a few weeks ago, Clouse moved from Maine to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Although she made the big move by herself, she credits voice memos for keeping her connected to long-distance friends in Maine, California, Utah and Vermont. It’s an easy way for her to tell a friend she’s thinking of them, share updates about her day or wish them a happy birthday. She usually doesn’t save the clips, except for particularly poignant ones.

“A lot of times, the replies are very encouraging and how proud they are of me,” she said. “… Those I try to keep, so I can listen to them again if I need to.”

Receivers: Be honest with the voice note enthusiasts in your life

Sarah Wills, on the other hand, doesn’t get the hype. In a few taps, someone can fire off a minutes-long voice memo, but it’s time-consuming for listeners, the 45-year-old says.

“When you get a voice message, you are held hostage, and it is an ASMR overload because ultimately I’m listening to a friend, they’re jangling car keys, they’re throwing a handbag in the car seat … or they’re shopping for apples in the supermarket,” she said.

“Sometimes, I’m like, ‘Mate, start a podcast already,’” she said.

Wills would know. A podcaster and presenter in Brisbane, Australia, who co-hosts Lise and Sarah with her best friend, Lise Carlaw, Wills said that unlike voice memos, which are unpredictably timed and typically warrant a response, you can choose whether to listen to a podcast conversation.

When she’s told people to stop sending her voice texts, they’ve heckled her, and then apologised – via voice note, of course. Wills prefers her contacts send voice notes that last only a few seconds, or urgent messages where texting or calling isn’t feasible.

Voice notes are “almost the communications equivalent of a Labubu”, Wills says. “It’s a mystery box. You never know what you’re going to get.”