The Phone Rings but the User Doesn't Answer: Unavailability in Mobile Communication

We know that phone calls and mobile text messages are not always promptly answered and responded to, yet we know little about the reasons for unavailability, its effects on a user's image, the ways in which users explain the reasons for it, and actions when users cannot reach someone. Usage logs (2,983 phone use events), Web-based diaries, and interviews (N = 20) were used to investigate occasional unavailability in a mobile communication context. We identified four categories of unavailability and found that 31.1% of the phone calls consisted of unsuccessful communication attempts and reciprocal calls back from people who were unavailable earlier. Interestingly, while participants paid attention to the need to give reasons for unavailability, they did not require the explanations to be truthful. These findings have implications for design of systems that better support the needs to manage and explain unavailability and manage pending communication requests.