The original note, as written at the time
A phone call isn’t just for conveyance of audio information. It also conveys emotional presence. There is something unique about knowing that your friend, your family is right there and then on that line at the other end. Maybe we could create an interface that combines audio calls with texting, such that the audio calls are done concurrently with the texting and the doodling.
Ongoing development
A phone call is not only a conveyance of audio. It also conveys emotional presence — there is something unique about knowing that your friend or your family is right there, on that line, at the other end.
That presence is the whole reason a call still beats a message, and it is precisely what the call interface ignores. Everything on the screen during a call is either about the network or about ending it. There is nothing for being together.
The proposal: an interface that combines the call with texting and doodling, running concurrently. Audio in the background, lightly, while both people write and draw. Not a video call — video is a different demand, it asks you to be presentable. A low-quality audio line plus a shared surface is much closer to sitting in the same room doing different things.
That arrangement has a name in ordinary life: keeping someone company. It is what people actually want from a long call, and it is exactly what the current design makes impossible, because a call is a dedicated activity that occupies the hand and the attention.
The design question is presence without obligation. The line should be openable the way a light is left on: the other person can see that you are there, can speak if they want, and silence carries no penalty. That is very hard to design and it is the whole thing.
The interface should also be allowed to end quietly. A call that fades rather than disconnects, and a record of how long you were together, would make the medium do what it is already doing: keeping company rather than conducting a transaction.