I had a dream last night. In my dreams there are often all kinds of strange inventions and artifacts that don’t exist in real life. Most of the time, these are really weird and just plain dumb. But every once in a while something truly useful pops up. Last night was one of those times.
In my dream somebody called me on my phone, and when I looked at the phone there was not only the name of the person calling, but also the subject of the proposed call. Caller ID with a subject line. Just like with email. Wouldn’t that be really useful? If you’re anything like me, you often answer a call, even when busy, just to “see if it’s anything important”. With this functionality, that would not be necessary. You could also see on your missed calls what they where about. I think that would be absolutely awesome!
Wouldn’t it also be fairly easy to implement? At least in a service like Skype?
If you’re in a position to do so, please steal this idea and implement it. Consider it a Creative Commons license.
If you’re not, help me spread this idea so that we can get it implemented. I just want to see it happen. If you’re on Twitter, link back to this post and use #CallerSubject.
[EDIT: There seems to be some similar patent out there already. I guess that's why it isn't implemented. What can we conclude from that? And what should we call it? #ideasquatting maybe?]
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This actually is a great idea! It´s wierd that no one has thought of it before.
I have to agree with the first one (with the same name as me). Great idea! Would save a lot of time
well, it’s on the same functionality stream as being able to respond “positive” or “negative” to an SMS, which would save one from spending money on a simple “yes” which often is the case.
not too different from the option “like” in FaceBook which I guess at some point will be implemented in Twitter.
Start with connecting callers iCal (or eqv) with recievers iCal?
Please make it controlled by voice to avoid losing the time you save by not answering the call on typing subjects to your friends instead.
Jonas- When I lived in Italy the kids had a low-tech solution for this. “Squilo”. You call back after you receive the message. If you let one ring go through – yes, if you let two rings go through – no. Then you hang up. Free.
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