I listened to an entire album of somebody named Kendrick Lamar with her without mocking rap music.
Actually I must be available to the persons named in the OP 24/7 for various. Except the GF, but I WANT her to be able to contact me at any time.
(1) Do Not Disturb is not rude. When this feature was explained to me I started dancing. Excellent! I do not have to let everyone in, just the few that might need quick access.
(2) thorny locust is correct and I agree: “I’ll call you back” means “I’ll call you back shortly, certainly today”. The only deviation I might allow would be if the time is after 11 p.m. At that point there isn’t a “shortly” period left.
Like a few previous posters, I hate having to be available at some nebulous time in the future waiting for the call back. Sure, I can ignore it, but it’s still irritating.
In general this is true, but in the specific situation described in the OP I’m siding with Skald.
One meaning of “later” is “later in the day” or “later in the night,” as in “10:30 pm is later than 9:30 pm.” “8:00 the next morning” would in one sense be later still, but in another sense it would be much earlier. Because of the ambiguity, I would never say “later” when I meant “tomorrow.”
It’s context dependent: If I were watching a newscast, and the anchor said “More on that later,” I would expect to hear more later within that newscast, not on some later day’s news.
If I say “I’ll call you back”, I mean I’ll call back right now, or a soon as I finish this one thing.
If I say “I’ll call you back later”, I mean I’ll call back after I’ve finished everything else, unless I forget.
If some member of my family says “I’ll call you back later”, I’ll feel hopeful, but ultimately sad and disappointed.
Generalizing, I think that ‘later’ means the same day, but without any commitment. I’d be pleased, happy and satisfied if it meant the same week, let alone the next day.
Also, I think that “later” can be a valid indication of a continuing relationship, as long as the context and the shared language makes it clear what is intended. In context, I’d accept that as meaning “6 months, when I get back”, or “love ya dude”
Of course it’s not rude to use do not disturb. In fact, it’s sometimes rude not to use it.
Are you aware that on your iPhone (and presumably android) you can also assign customized vibrate tones as well as customized rings tones to anyone in your contact list? Or you can have only one or the other - you don’t need both. You can also change the default for anybody not on your list.
I only use Do not Disturb from 10pm to 7am, and I have individual ring tones & vibrations for each family member or friend and a different one for strangers. I know without even looking up from my comic book who it is and then decide whether to pick up or read their text or wait until the end of that section or chapter. My daughter is a drama queen, that can usually wait. My son only texts or calls if it’s important, so I look right away.
@Skald the Rhymer
Your dislike (hatred?) of Apple / Siri brought to mind a podcast I listened to recently about how quickly people become indifferent to technology. 10 years ago it was inconceivable that you hold a device in your hand that would have the ability for you to speak in normal english and it could understand you and (for the most part) correctly translate that into actions. “Read me the last text I received from Clara” “Remind me to call Clara when I get home” “Reply to Clara’s text” plus plus plus all the myriad of other things you can do with Siri or Alexa etc.
And all you can do is bitch about it.
I Bich about the iPhone because it frequently works very badly FOR ME. Apple has the tendency to introduce new features for their coolness factor without worrying about the utility of features already existing. My iPhones have actually decreased in usefulness Since I got my first one back in 2016, when my eyes went to hell. That 6s was running iOS 10.3. Every time I have upgraded the iOS, something Apple constantly nags one to do, there have been multiple problems with VoiceOver, The only reason I bought the damn phone. At least two important features have NEVER worked right on any of my phones.
Is Apple superior in terms of accessibility to its smart phone competitors? Yes. But that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to like using it. Why on earth would I care about the better picture quality of the phone’s camera, something I have simply no use for, when dictation — something I need to use all the time — fucks up every single time I use it?
Hard disagree. In my experience when someone says “I’ll talk to you later” there’s about a 15% chance I’m going to hear from them again that same day. It mostly means goodbye.
@ elfkin
Agree and hard disagree right back at you. Agree in that if a friend of mine says that I don’t expect a call back soon.
But if you read the context of the OP’s question, they are interrupted in the middle of a conversation and he is told that. In that context, she then is implying that she’ll call you back later “tonight” to continue the conversation you were just having, once she’s dealt with cause of the interruption.
This isn’t a “good-bye I’m done talking” end of a call situation like it is when my friends and I say it.
Just to be helpful, I take the exact opposite view. If the conversation has to be terminated by one party because an interruption, “I’ll call you back” would suggest a call back as soon as the interruption has been dealt with. “I’ll call you back later” means “at some indeterminate point in the future”, which could well not be tonight.
There a problem with “I’ll get in touch maybe Wednesday or Thursday?” Ask Clara to be clear, or tell her you’re going to bed or whatever.
RE: ‘Do not disturb’ - My Mother is in a skilled nursing facility at this time. I block everything but phone between 8pm and 5am. Phone is also my alarm clock, so it’s on my nightstand and I don’t want it to beep at me. The phone I must leave on. People know that if you call me past 8pm, there better be a VERY good reason to do so.
Maybe I don’t really understand the problem here. Just communicate.
" I’ll call you back later" means I intend to call you back the same day. I may not in fact be able to, but that’s my intention. In the context of a conversation like the one described , both " I’ll call you back" and “I’ll call you back later” imply to me that the call-back will happen as soon as the interruption is dealt with.
I do want to mention that in a similar situation to the one described ( my husband was away, I was home with the kids and we usually talked for half-an hour or so between when the kids went to bed and when I did) an interruption of some sort after 10-15 minutes typically meant the conversation was terminated early , without any “I’ll call you back” so I’m not sure what I would expect if my husband said " I’ll call you back later" under those circumstances.
In the landline age “later” meant within a few hours.
In the mobile phone age “later” is indefinite.
Do Not Disturb is not rude. In fact, the etiquette these days seems to be that you text someone to see if they are available to take a call. (Granted, that might not apply if the person is blind.) So clearly it’s acceptable to not accept calls.
But I don’t agree that “I’ll call you later” means “I’ll call you later tonight.” If I meant the latter, I’d say it. It’s just one extra word. “Later” by itself just means some vague but not too distant time in the future. How long that is depends on the situation, but I think her idea that it includes early the next day is acceptable.
That said, I think you’re perfectly entitled to say it doesn’t mean that to you, and to ask her to be more clear. So, while I think she’s right, you’re not exactly wrong, either.
Edit: “I’ll call you back” means something different still. I agree that it implies that you will call back as soon as you can. But I argue adding “later” removes that expectation.
Blind people can receive text messages if we are using a smartphone. What becomes problematic is using certain abbreviations. For example, many people use WYD as you suggest, to see if the other person is available to talk. My phone reads that as homophonous with WIDE, creating confusion. Also, texting etiquette has changed in the last few years so that periods are not used at the end of the sentence in many cases. For a blind person using voiceover, this changes the intonation of the sentence and can create misunderstanding. and of course stickers and emojis are often pointless.
Uhmmm… Not really sure what you mean here. We’re saying the exact same thing as far as I can tell. 
In this case, as in much of communication, context is everything. The posters suggesting Skald has the issue here are not grasping the context or choosing to ignore it. Their phone call was** interrupted in mid-conversation**, that context changes everything about her statement.
Team Skald is correct here.
If the sentence under question was ‘I’ll call you back’, then your argument would work. But it’s not.
The word ‘later’ only exists to remove the idea of a time period. It is not filler. It is actually a semantically important word.
You do not use it if you do not mean it.