Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

Had launched something like this in 2016. We had called it as ering.me, so you could have an url like ering.me/handle. Used it in email signatures, web calling etc. It didn't pick up at that time or we didn't market enough :)

Hope the market is mature now and products like this succeed. All the best.

I'm not really surprised. The people who grew up with phone calls and who like to "hop on a call" to work out issues are all aging out. They are in their fifties at the youngest, if not already retired. It's my experience that far fewer younger people reach for the phone as a first means of contact. It's not preferred, and they try to avoid it.

And by "call" I mean direct, synchronous, real-time conversation. Whether literally a phone call, or an online voice or video call.

The nice thing about real time calls is they help avoid confusion, convey more emotion and information than most messages can.

There is less ambiguity usually during a real conversation.

Conversations tend to resolve very quickly because in the span of five minutes we can go back and forth on multiple questions, get clarity and finalize how we want continue. Some things require this but not everything. There is a balance as with everything.

Of course all points are correct - and yet

> nearly half [of gen z] admit that speaking on the phone makes them feel anxious (49 per cent)

> an awkward phone call is one of the top three things they would most want to avoid (42 per cent)

That being said I'm quite confident there is enough of a market that doesn't dread talking on the phone that this company could do very well for itself and its founders financial goals.

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https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/newsroom/2023/06/CBA-Mo...

For me, my reluctance to use the phone is that 90% of the phone calls I get are spams/scams or to put it most kindly, unsolicited. I have just developed a visceral dislike for answering phone calls. My phone is set only to ring if you're in my contacts list. Everone else goes to voicemail (I guess -- I never set it up and I never check it).

When I was young we had a landline at home and yes there were some telemarketing calls but they were not the majority. Most calls were from friends or family or legitimate other purposes. That's not how it is today, at least in my experience.

Part of it is that anything other than a local call used to cost money. So there was a financial disincentive to robo-call thousands of people hoping that you'd find one rube.

How do you handle calls from unknowns like Doctors, hospitals or clinics?