Everybody I know answers it “Hello?” in English and “Oui allo?” in French. How do they do it in other languages? And do the France French answer it differently than the Quebecois? Do the Germans answer with typical teutonic efficiency?
The Italians tend to answer with “pronto”. There’s more info here.
Not universal by any means, but many Israelis (including me) answer the phone “Shalom” (“peace” – also used as the generic greeting **and[/b/] as the generic parting [“hello” / “goodbye”])
Dani
Most of the Dutch people I know answer the phone: “Met Alfred.” (or “Met (whatever your name is).”)
In the example above it is translated as, “With Alfred” (literally), or effectively, “Alfred here.”
Any Nederlanders please feel free to correct me on any of this if I goofed it up!
When I went to Taiwan, they answered the phone with: “Wei?” Pronounced similar to way and weigh.
Serbia: Da, molim (“yes, please”)
In Japanese: moshi moshi! I’ve read it’s to prove you’re not a fox spirit.
Prove you’re not a fox spirit??? is that a big problem in Japan?
Spanish uses “Alo?” (accent on the “A”) or “Diga”.
I usually hear Israelis answer “Allo”, not so much “shalom”.
My Mexican friends always answered “Bueno?”, which I thought was interesting, since it means “Good?”
Actually, it’s got more of a “well?” flavor.
You can’t be too careful with these things.
Most of Europe, IME: “Alo?”
Well, obviously it’s a holdover from meeting strange people on the road a few centuries ago. I mean, if the fox spirit (kitsune) is on the phone, I imagine you don’t have to worry about it - unless it’s like in Scream where they’re calling from inside your house. Then you may indeed need to worry about fox spirits.
Korean: Yoboseyo?
Literally means “hello”, but only in the context of answering the phone, AFAIK.
In an ‘awww… ain’t they cute! barf’ aside; “yobo” in Korean is the word to refer to one’s spouse (as in honey, dear, hey you!, etc.)… when my wife (native Korean) and I (native white guy) call each other, we answer with “Yobo… seyo!”
I guess you probably have to be either Korean or married to a Korean for that to amuse you. 
In Germany it’s usual to answer the phone with one’s name, i.e. Mr. Müller will usually answer his private phone with
“Müller.”
and his phone at his desk at Example AG with
“Example AG, Müller” or
“Example AG, Müller, guten Tag”,
and when he’s visiting the Meyers and picking up the phone there:
“Bei Meyer, Müller, guten Tag”. (At the Meyers, Müller speaking, hello".)
The advantage of that is that ideally the first exchange establishes both parties’ identities so one can get to the business of the call. The disadvantage is that the caller cannot let his mind wander while waiting for the phone being picked up.
Picking up with “Hallo” is somewhat gaining currency, though, notably with the sort of women who have herself listed with last name only in the phone directory, and with people who take the call at their mobile phone or who don’t share the fixed-line phone with others in their household. (Being old-fashioned in this respect I consider this annoying myself - I insist on clearly establishing who I am talking to before coming to the subject of the call.)
I’ve read stuff that says the Japanese believe that ghosts can’t say a word an even number of times (only odd numbers) so that’s the reason behind saying “moshimoshi”. haven’t been able to find a good confirmation tho’. “Moshi” is a corruption of “mousu” or “I speak” in very polite language.
My german friend answers with his last name [Krause, if anybody is interested…is I guess nearly the equivalent to smith in the us…very common last name=)]
Though he was military, so it might be a military thing, my father and hubby occasionally answer with their last name.
Well, the thing about Kitsune is that they’re not ‘rip your throat out’ type threats. They charm or trick their way into your life, then manipulate you into doing things. They can totally do that on the phone.
You know, as far as evil spirits go, these guys are pretty useless.
Are these the fuckers that keep interrupting me during dinner trying to sell me vinyl siding or get me to donate to their PACs?
In German class in highschool we were taught that the only proper German way to answer the phone was
“Hier ist Müller”
Is that out of date or were we taught wrong?