However, having had a voice chat for an hour this weekend with someone 200 miles away, I can tell you that 30 years ago it worked so much better it’s not even funny; it was just expensive.
My phone provider (Fi) gave me an internet connected call rather than use the cell voice network (proudly telling me it was encrypted). It was full of dropouts and there was a serious latency that really inhibited conversation. I switched to a few other options like WhatsApp and the audio quality improved but the latency did not, and even got worse. Young people may be barely aware that a 200 mile phone call had tiny latency - you would not know there was any - because there was a literal wire connection between each end and communication was at the speed of light. Even transatlantic calls had minimal latency unless it went by satellite.
Sure today we can do it with video, but frankly, for a chat, I don’t even see much benefit. I’d certainly choose voice-only if it meant zero latency, and sadly I seem to have chosen a mobile provider that does its best to prevent that.
The latency thing drives me nut as well. It depends a lot on the provider though.
Microsoft Teams is the worst in my experience (though it has gotten better), with 1 full second of RTT not even being out of the norm.
Discord though? It’s great. They built it for gamers, who need to be able to give information quickly, and it shows. At work everybody is accidentally talking over everybody in Teams due to the latency, then you get in a discord call and it’s like you’re in the same room. Insane that latency does not factor much or at all in Microsoft’s KPIs.
And for no charge.
However, having had a voice chat for an hour this weekend with someone 200 miles away, I can tell you that 30 years ago it worked so much better it’s not even funny; it was just expensive.
My phone provider (Fi) gave me an internet connected call rather than use the cell voice network (proudly telling me it was encrypted). It was full of dropouts and there was a serious latency that really inhibited conversation. I switched to a few other options like WhatsApp and the audio quality improved but the latency did not, and even got worse. Young people may be barely aware that a 200 mile phone call had tiny latency - you would not know there was any - because there was a literal wire connection between each end and communication was at the speed of light. Even transatlantic calls had minimal latency unless it went by satellite.
Sure today we can do it with video, but frankly, for a chat, I don’t even see much benefit. I’d certainly choose voice-only if it meant zero latency, and sadly I seem to have chosen a mobile provider that does its best to prevent that.
Removed by mod
The latency thing drives me nut as well. It depends a lot on the provider though.
Microsoft Teams is the worst in my experience (though it has gotten better), with 1 full second of RTT not even being out of the norm.
Discord though? It’s great. They built it for gamers, who need to be able to give information quickly, and it shows. At work everybody is accidentally talking over everybody in Teams due to the latency, then you get in a discord call and it’s like you’re in the same room. Insane that latency does not factor much or at all in Microsoft’s KPIs.