The phone is conveniently located in a place you could get to it immediately; it’s not in your pocket or in the other room or anything like that.
You are not expecting an urgent call for any reason, business or personal, nor are you under any particular obligation to answer it quickly, nor are you attempting to avoid talking to anyone for any reason.
You are not in any situation where you would have to answer it quickly as to not disturb others.
You did not just take a big bite of food you need a moment to chew and swallow.
You are not driving, or holding a baby, or having a conversation with someone else, or any other caveat you can possibly think of which would force you to answer quickly or ignore the call.
How many times do you let it ring before you answer it?
Caller ID kicks in between the first and second ring, and I always wait until I see the caller ID before deciding whether or not to answer the phone, and that decision takes enough time for the second ring to kick in, so in my case the answer is “at least twice”.
I hate talking to anybody on the phone, so I always let it roll to the answering machine. If it’s a member of the immediate family, I return the call at my convenience.
Depends on who it is and whether I have the time or inclination to talk. If it’s someone I want to speak to, I will answer as soon as I see it’s them. If not, goes to voicemail.
I would just answer it as soon as I can grab it. If there isn’t a reason (like waiting for Caller ID to come up) I can’t see why you’d wait a specified number of rings.
And with that, ISTM, your poll is missing the “As soon as I can” option. It might not be one, ring, sometimes it’s 3 or 4, sometimes it’s 2. But I can assure you I’m never sitting there starting at it going RING…1…RING…2…(one more)…RING…Hello.
I always answer the phone immediately, a holdover from working reception, help desk and other jobs that require answering the phone. I am also insanely cheerful when I answer the phone, no matter what I was doing or how I was feeling before it rang. People’s reaction is usually either, “Wow, you answer so fast,” or “Well you certainly are cheerful.” I think it would take some work to retrain myself to answer differently, and I don’t see any reason to do so.
Under those restraints, twice, as long as its someone I want to talk to. If not, I let it ring a fourth time and go to voicemail. Heck, now that I have as special ring for the people I usually talk to, I often won’t even look at the phone if it’s the normal ring, particularly when I’m in the middle of something. If it’s an emergency, they’ll call back right away.
EDIT: and yes, it’s because it takes time for the caller ID to kick in. Though I’ll admit it’s become such a habit that I’ll do it even when using a phone without ID.
I’ll only let it ring three times if it’s an elf, but if it’s a dwarf I’ll wait as long as seven. I can go up to nine for regular guys and dolls, but if it’s Margaret Thatcher I’ll cut her off at the one.
I let it ring until I can get to it. Then I look at the caller id, then I answer it. Sometimes I’m close to the phone and it only rings once or twice, sometimes I’m in another room and it may ring a few times before I get there. If I’m not waiting for an important call, I never rush to answer the phone. I have to answer the phone promptly and politely all day long at work, most of the time when it rings at home, I would prefer to ignore it.
Twice for the landline, because we get phantom rings and I hate answering the phone and having no one on the other end. Twice also seems to be the right number to avoid picking up before the person calling me hears a full ring - that freaks out my mom enough that I’m nice enough to avoid it!
On the cell phone - probably twice out of habit, though occasionally just once. I don’t think I’m as consistent.
Always at least 2, so I can see who’s calling. If it’s someone I want to talk to, I’ll then answer. If it isn’t, I’ll hit silent on the phone so I don’t have to hear it and let it ring until they hang up, or it goes to voice mail in the case of my cell phone.
At the office: zero. It starts ringing, I pick it up. I don’t wait for the first ring to end before I reach for the phone.
The poll question is, “how many times do you let it ring before you answer it?” If you pick up on the first ring, the correct answer to the question is: zero. Is ‘zero’ an allowable answer in this poll? No? Defective poll.
At home, I wait for Caller ID to kick in, like most everyone else in this thread.
It’s been years since I had a land line. But my general approach to phones is and always has been: when they start ringing, I start answering.
Assuming per the OP I’ve not got some obstacle to immediate action, there is zero advantage in waiting for, e.g. 1, 2, or 3 rings to start getting up, walking wherever, etc. Start now. Whether that means reaching for it right next to you or going across the room.
In the modern world, phones (wired or wireless) go to voicemail within ballpark 4 rings of at most 5 seconds each. So if I know I can’t get to the phone in 20 seconds there’s no point in even trying. But with that 20 second time limit out there, there’s even less point to deliberately wasting 10 of them waiting for it to make even more annoying noise.
Answer the damn phone! Now!
BTW: Here’s another vote for “the poll ought to have an ‘as soon as practical’ choice”.
