Slate – It’s a voicemail but better: “Anytime I have something I want to share with a friend, I turn to my phone. But rather than giving them a call or sending a quick text, I like to send a voice memo. The ability to easily send an audio recording to contacts is undoubtedly one of the best tech inventions in my book. Phone calls are time intensive, and also not as commonly used among my generation (I’m a recent college graduate, and I think I’m the only one of my friends who sporadically calls friends to catch up). And while text messages can be sent in an instant, even in the age of predictive text and autocorrect it can take a lot of energy to type out a whole story to your friends. Enter the voice memo, or “audio message.” The feature is simple to use. On iPhones, there is a button to start one right there in the texting interface next to the emoji keyboard (the Android interface requires a couple more clicks). They come across as much less urgent than a phone call— a ringing phone may imply an emergency. Even a text demands a fast response; no one likes to be “left on read.” The expectation with voice memos seems to be that you respond when you have time to listen. It’s sort of like a voicemail, but way better. Who even checks their voice mails these days?..”