Missed Call to the uninitiated is a concept where a caller calls the receiver on his mobile phone but disconnects the call before the receiver answers it, resulting in a “Missed Call”. The details of the caller are displayed on the receiver’s phone. Why would one do that? There are several reasons. Though the primary reason for the missed call is to save on calling costs, there are various other reasons too:
- On arrival at a place: For instance, “I will give you a missed call when I reach there”. This one is a good time-saver.
- Signalling: I saw this when a friend was communicating with his “friend”. Two quick missed calls mean X, three means Y etc. Or a missed call around 8 AM means that you are leaving to the office, around 7 PM means you are back home etc. This worked well for my friend since he was giving missed calls across the globe and saving on ISD costs through his Morse Code like signalling. Other variants in signalling include letting the other party know when a task is complete/reached a state by giving a missed call. All signalling is agreed upon before hand.
- Safety: This is similar to the first one, where one gives a missed call to the other party to notify that he/she has reached a place safely. Unlike the first one, this one may not require any follow up on the receiver.
These are some of the common uses of the missed calls that I’ve come across. And I’ve noticed that the missed call usage is more in India than in other countries making me think that this concept might have originated here. Have you come across any other use for a missed call? Is it prevalent in other countries? Please do share in the comments.
