Drives me nuts, too. I don’t take public transportion much anymore but when I do I’m glad it’s infrequent that I have to listen to everyone’s noise. And speakerphone conversations at far higher volume than if the other party were there. Probably the best defense is to train yourself to ignore it because I don’t see this going away anytime soon.

Unless some kind tiktok influencers decide to start mocking people using the speaker.

I share your annoyance with hearing any sounds from nearby phones that are broadcasting via speaker. No matter the reason, I think it’s rude for nearby strangers to invade the airspace around me by broadcasting the sounds from their phones into it. Ear buds don’t quite resolve this issue either. It seems we all talk a bit louder when we’re not speaking directly either into a phone or to a person whose face we can see IRL (not facetime call). I think our brains are trained to tune out conversation between people at nearby tables - assuming no shouting going on. But, voices being broadcast by speakers sounds different & we automatically tune in & once we ID the sound source, cannot tune it out.

“But, voices being broadcast by speakers sounds different…”

I think that’s a big factor. It also bothers me.

My default expectation of strangers in public is that they're more likely to be rude and self-focused than not. There's no better example for me than when merging onto the freeway while signaling to enter the lane. Or, signalling a lane change. No reason to expect the fellow driver to be courteous and offer space for the maneuver to be made, that's becoming rare.

That same person hops out of the car and is seated in a cafe or other establishment. You expect them to be considerate with how they use their phone?

As for silent listening, I'm not sure I agree that's no longer prevalent. I see AirPods everywhere. Also, over the ear gizmos also seem to be common, though that's sometimes a different segment of society. A problem with people using cell phones in general is that since the earphone part of it doesn't play back the speaker's audio the way old fashioned landline devices did, people tend to speak too loud.

With phones, what I don't get is people holding the phone in front of them while using the speaker phone. I see that a lot with drivers. Hey, dummy, don't you realize your car has a handsfree feature for calls?

I wish the road and highway policing agencies put more emphasis on citing these idiots. Most people are inconsiderate and unskilled in their driving to begin with - to hold a phone in one hand and restrict driving (and eating and the application of eye makeup) to just one hand is dangerous.

“I wish the road and highway policing agencies put more emphasis on citing these idiots.”

Could not agree more!

TV wrote: I know why people stopped using earphones to listen to their phone (selfish), but I wonder why hearing people's phone speaker is so much more annoying than hearing their conversation - even conversations I don't like. Is it because it's new, and I just need to train myself to make it background noise like people's conversations?

Maybe a Peercer would help. It’s about 3” x 1.5” diameter highly compressed air cannister with a small ”mouth” at the end with two modes — focus or broadcast. Very discreet and you can hide it, out of sight. Depress a button and it emits a 95 to 125 decibel, piercing screech in intermittent bursts. The little air canisters are replaceable, $5 each.

petalique - you‘re making a joke?

A "piercer air horn" refers to a compact, extremely loud signaling device that produces a high-pitched, piercing sound (often 120+ dB) for emergency signaling, wildlife deterrence, or sporting events, meeting safety standards for boats and fitting in pockets, with brands like Falcon offering them for personal safety or marine use, but caution is advised due to immediate hearing risk

Yep, joking. But your air horn would work ;) Link?

Anyone ever want a ”stinky” emitter for those times when you’re, say, in a card shop, choosing a card and a bunch of noisy people and their noisy kids crash into the section, fracturing your quiet? One press of the stink device and you’d think that old uncle Bernard dropped by after having two helpings of corned beef and cabbage.

"...but I wonder why hearing people's phone speaker is so much more annoying than hearing their conversation - even conversations I don't like."

Agree -- much more annoying. I have politely asked people in a public setting to turn down their young kids' devices when they're really loud, and have always had them oblige. Works with an office mate, too, who has a terrible habit of blasting her personal calls on the speaker phone when she doesn't realize someone else is in the office -- I just ask her to take it off speaker and she does. I suppose the trick is to be nice about it, not rude or nasty. Works for me {shrug}.

Unfortunately, some people are terribly crass these days. I hope this is just a phase and that it won't get even worse. I live in a town, in a state, that tends to be quite reserved. I like it that way.

The epitome for me was...I was shopping at the local Walmart, when there appeared a woman shopping with a couple of young kids hanging on her cart. She was breastfeeding an infant with no cover at all, and she had a boombox in her cart, playing rap music very loud. Several shoppers, myself included, stared in aghast. We are not used to seeing this sort of thing. Is this suppose to be OK?

“Attention Walmart Shoppers!”

ha-ha. yep.

Unrelated in that it’s not annoying, but anyone ever notice how loud some people have their car’s Bluetooth? Like you’re walking down a parking lot snd hear some really loud talking, and it turns out it’s someone in their car, with closed windows, having a conversation with the radio blasting. Odd.

^^^ That person might be trying to reassure himself that he is actually alive.

"Unrelated in that it’s not annoying, but anyone ever notice how loud some people have their car’s Bluetooth?"

Pretty much every day...

What if it's someone in the next room? Hubby likes to scroll through YouTube shorts and FB reels @ full volume and he never wants to use earbuds. He has hearing loss from being a drummer for decades. He blasts the TV too.

I have a hunch that many more people today are hard of hearing - mainly from listening to things at high volume all the time. Hence the lack of awareness of how loud things actually are.

I don't know why either but I find it irritating and more intrusive.