# calling voicemail makes text faster **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955 "2009-12-29T20:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/1 "2009-12-29T20:26:19Z")
I am putting this here because I am looking for a factual answer as well as a little polling info. Somehow, my daughters got it in their heads that sending text via Verizon is too slow. They feel sometimes their texts are delayed. They follow up their text messages with a call to their voicemail which in theory pushes the text through faster. Is this true? If so, why? I can’t believe this is true. I’ve googled and checked snopes, but no one else out there is apparently doing this because I can’t find anything. Has anyone else heard of this practice? My free texting has insanely jumped my bill because each VM call takes a bite out of my minutes. You can imagine how many times a couple of teenage girls text in a month. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/2 "2009-12-29T20:31:53Z")
This may not be **completely** off the wall, IME. I’ve had text messages come through to me late (sometimes **very** late), and usually they come through after I either make or accept a call, so there may be something to the idea that “pinging” the network may help text messages coming **in** to your handset. I strongly doubt calling one’s own VM (if I got what you’re saying correctly) will help in \*\*pushing \*\*text messages **out** , however. So, a kernel pf truth perhaps, misunderstood and magnified…? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/3 "2009-12-29T22:36:41Z")
I have a pre-paid AT&T phone. When I send a text message to myself from one of the Internet gateway web pages, I receive it almost immediately most of the time. The very first thing they should do it to confirm this is really happening. They should try a number of measured experiments. Time how fast messages go through with and without them calling. > **[SMS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS)** > > Short Message Service (SMS) is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, typically transmitted over cellular networks. > Developed as part of the GSM standards, and based on the SS7 signalling protocol, SMS rolled out on digital cellular networks starting in 1993 and was originally intended for customers to receive alerts from their carrier/operator. The... > [@](#): > > The key idea for SMS was to use this telephony-optimized system and to transport messages on the signaling paths needed to control the telephony traffic during time periods when no signaling traffic existed. I guess their idea is forcing the cell system to communicate with them. **IF** that is what’s happening (I’m not an expert so I have no idea), maybe turning off their phones and then turning them back on would accomplish the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/4 "2009-12-30T00:28:04Z")
SMS messaging delays are impossible to predict. I administer a little SMS server and we pass our SMS to the network pretty quickly. Tmobile gets it and returns a value telling us it has been received. From there its anyone’s guess how long it takes. It may go straight to another tmobile customer or go to AT&T and get delayed there, etc. On top of it, the client may be in an area with poor reception or on a phone call or browsing the web. Who knows. Unlike email we dont get bounces or anything. If it fails, it fails quietly. If its delayed 5 hours, we dont know until the client tell us. No matter what your children do, the real issue is a ~150byte message needs to be transmitted from the phone to the tower. This usually begins when the user hits send. I doubt the phone queues it. It just sends it if it has a connection to the tower. I suspect whats going on is just a psychological trick. If the message takes 20 seconds to get there then if you sit there thinking “Whats taking so long?” then that 20 seconds feels like forever. If you start fiddling with your phone, making calls, or whatever then that 20 seconds feels much shorter. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/5 "2009-12-30T01:05:42Z")
I’ve heard stranger things that turned out to be true but there is no evidence for this. :dubious: I have had Verizon Wireless for several years and have never noticed a lag in text message transmission. I don’t see how making a voice call can have any effect whatsoever on a text message that is already “in the air.” In fact, the opposite: I used to work in a building where I had very poor reception and was unable to place a voice call but my text messages would still get in and out (presumably there were enough little time slices available to send text over a period of time, but not enough to support a real-time voice call). However, your coverage area may be less reliable than mine, greater Washington, D.C. > [@zydecat](#): > > My free texting has insanely jumped my bill because each VM call takes a bite out of my minutes. You can imagine how many times a couple of teenage girls text in a month. I can imagine. My 13-year-old daughter averages 6,000 messages per month :eek: (I assume that is send + receive)–unlimited text plan, thank God. 🙂 Teenage girls (IME) are very susceptible to passing around unsubstantiated factoids and accepting them on face value as true. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/6 "2009-12-30T02:53:04Z")
I have T-Mobile. I sometimes don’t receive voicemail until days after being sent. Texts always come almost instantaneously. ---
**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/7 "2009-12-30T05:26:56Z")
I agree with you all. I’ve had the occasional voicemail show up late but never a text. However, I don’t really text all that much. As teenagers (and some adults) are wont to do, they are adamant that this practice works. I called total BS mostly because I’ve never had a late text. They didn’t realize the impact on my phone bill when they call their voicemail 100’s of times per day. Anyway, keep an eye on your phone bills. If this practice takes hold, you can trace it back to western PA. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/8 "2009-12-30T05:43:36Z")
I’ve never heard of the voicemail thing, but when I was in college sometimes my texts would get delayed and then I’d receive a bunch of them at once. Whenever I was waiting for a text message and thought it was being delayed, I’d text myself, and usually that would “push” the other delayed messages and they’d all get delivered. Not sure how that worked, and I never have that problem nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/9 "2009-12-30T05:56:23Z")
There’s one more thing they might try. Call \*777#. Many systems will send back a text message with your account balance. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/10 "2009-12-30T06:05:03Z")
If 20 seconds isn’t fast enough for “no u” or “lol,” our culture is doomed. ---
**Author:** ![KNKN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90db22/32.png) [@KNKN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KNKN)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-voicemail-makes-text-faster/522955/11 "2010-01-06T17:34:37Z")
The gf’s daughter just got a $500 phone bill for doing this. Beware!