You’ll soon have voicemails from LinkedIn that you’ll never listen to

By Cale Guthrie Weissman

July 26, 2018

LinkedIn, the beloved platform for marketers and #hustling #entrepreneurs (and the begrudging occupational necessity for nearly everyone else), has a new feature that fits perfectly within its wheelhouse. Have you ever scrolled through the endless PR and “networking” messages in your LinkedIn inbox and thought—there has to be another way? Well, now all those people you probably don’t know can leave you a voicemail.

Yes, LinkedIn is introducing a new voicemail feature for its mobile app. According to the company, the new feature will make sending messages easier on the go. And it looks a lot like how iMessage’s voice messages look. At the same time, it raises a few questions: One, does anyone actually use the iMessage voice message feature? And two, is there anyone you converse with solely on LinkedIn from whom you’d prefer to receive voice messages?

While it’s true that LinkedIn provides many helpful features–networking, job search tools, people discovery–it is also one of the most unintentionally spam-filled social platforms. I don’t mean “click for viagra” kind of spam, but endless messages from people you don’t know who clog up your inbox with pitches, introductions, and invitations to “deskside” chats. The only thing worse than sifting through those text-based messages would be listening to their voices.

According to the company, the new feature is being rolled out on both the iOS and Android app–but people on the web will be able to listen to the messages, too. I await deleting them all.

 
 

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