An app that lets you pretend to receive a call when a co-worker distracts you

[blowski]

Just be honest and say "please don't think I'm being rude, but I really need to get on with this work." You can be assertive without lying or being nasty.

[cheriot]

That's ideal and needs to be the first approach. In practice, people that communicate all day don't always understand than other jobs require uninterrupted focus. That's why engineers try things like no-meeting-wednesdays and schedule blocks for coding.

I wouldn't use the tool in question, but I relate to the motivation.

[mafribe]

   please don't think I'm 
   being rude

By saying that you remind the interlocutor that being rude is in fact an option (indeed a widely used one) and you may simply be rude ... ah the subtleties of communication.

[yarper]

A small variation to this is to ask "Hey, sorry is it important?"

People tend not to think themselves or what they're doing as important for whatever reason.

It also sets the scene for future interactions. Oh and sometimes it really is important..

[davidmpaz]

+1 to you friend, there is no problem in saying: can not now please. People will understand you.

[bluetidepro]

+1. I don't understand why we need a Chrome plugin to act like an adult. Or, on the flip side, why you can't be an adult and not distract a co-worker. ha

[tmsldd]

might not work in all cases..

[throwaway_374]

I think that would offend my British sensibilities. Unless delivered with a winning smile. It's amazing how much a smile can solve.

[bigbugbag]

That's a clever social engineering scheme to collect phone numbers.

[random_upvoter]

I never understood why a telephone gets precedence over somebody who made the effort to come to you in person.

[dazc]

Because after 6 or 7 rings the person calling you will go away, while the person who has come to you will, usually, stand and wait.

I agree with the sentiment though, that it does often give the impression of being bad mannered.

[mhd]

Reminds me of the "Boss Key" you had in earlier games (or as a TSR in DOS), that showed some fake spreadsheet instead of your game screen. This is basically its cubicle cousin.

[dovdovdov]

Resume your focus! ...until our partners call you on a hourly bases for the rest of your life. ;)

[chillaxdude]

lol so true.

[cyberferret]

I was going to jump on this before I realised that (1) I have my phone on DND when I am 'running silent, running deep', and (2) I found out from the comments here that it doesn't work outside the US.

Perhaps to address both issues, there could be a version of this that doesn't actually make a physical call? Perhaps a pairing of an iOS/Android app to a button on the browser which send a standard in app message (free) to the phone associated with the button. The app could then simulate a ring tone, which would be enough to complete the illusion of an incoming call?

[FullMtlAlcoholc]

You can also use something like Google Voice or True Caller and block all other calls to your phone except for that one

[libeclipse]

Why not just honestly say you're busy? Works for me.

There's quite a few versions of this. I think a cheaper option is an app on your phone that imitates a phone call.

[staunch]

Just yell "I'm wired in!" and get back to it!

(teehee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942sTOBISQs)

[kozak]

The problem of being distracted when coding was greatly reduced for me when we moved to Git from more ancient version control tools. With faster/easier committing and history browsing, I can now make smaller and more logically divided commits, and thus need to keep less context in my head at every single moment.

[andrewflnr]

What an outrageously annoying website. I love it!

[scandox]

I created a version of this in 2006 (I think), called Getmooh.com - Get Me Out Of Here. The idea was to get people out of bad dates with an automated call.

I used the Skype API with VB6 and some natural voice libraries from AT&T. We mostly got used for prank calls with pre-recorded messages we had. Worked OK. But cost us money and I got bored once it was built. We got maybe 60,000 sign ups I think.

[tragic]

I'm pretty sure this was a feature of an old dumbphone, you could set it up so that holding down the number 5 (say) on the key pad would trigger a 'call'. Might have been a Samsung?

[JoshTriplett]

Amusing idea. Absolutely no good reason for this to require a Chrome-specific extension, though; this would work in any browser.

[omegote]

Any browser with extensions support, you mean.

[annerajb]

This seems great for those situation where telling the person that you are busy, or cannot attend them anymore wont cut it.

Usually a phone call is the only detractor for them to interrupt me. at the end it ended up being just to let me know something like i got this to compile!! which could have been done on slack or lync.

[Raed667]

I think this works only for US and Canadian numbers. Which isn't mentioned anywhere on the website.

[yehi]

I think that's because other cultures don't mind telling others that they are busy /s

[golergka]

There are other countries?!

[spb]

I made a similar app to this for Pebble at a hackathon in 2015: https://github.com/phoneyscape

We got an offer from Madrona Ventures for it that I never ended up following up on.

[mysterydip]

Related but with a different focus, Chelsea Handler made an app called "Gotta Go": https://gottago.io/ The process was detailed in one of her Netflix episodes IIRC.

[mikhailfranco]

False premise - a phone call should never be allowed to interrupt a real conversation.

[AndrewKemendo]

Surely you don't mean never.

[gherig4]

This is a blatant advertisement

[veli_joza]

It's a quick side project that might be useful to some, presented in quirky and humorous way. Why does it bother you?

[coldtea]

And your point is? Advertisements can still be useful to discuss. And commercial products and services are featured on HN all the time.

Plus, it's not like HN is anti-commercial either.

[Markoff]

pretty standard feature on Japanese phones for unemployed people or people who wanna look more busy or important, I guess people in West don't care do much about losing face our impression

[ninju]

Note the fine print in gray (or is it grey) text at the bottom the page

(Any discount code associated with this experience will expire on December 31, 2017.)

[edsykes]

"i'm sorry, i'm on a deadline"

[raarts]

I just say: i'm going to get me a coffee (water, restroom) and when i return they're gone.

[tvaughan]

If you don't have your phone on airplane mode then you do want to be distracted.

[taksintikk]

Simple but powerful.

Great job.