What's your cell phone etiquette if you're in a passenger car with 3-4 other adults?

If necessary, a short to the point conversation. ” I will get back to you later. ” Texting is better than babbling away in such circumstances. There may also be a chance to talk a bit more during a quick stop.

I haven’t been in a car with 3–4 other people in years, but if I were, I would (preference 1) let the call go to VM if it didn’t look important or (preference 2) answer quickly or send a very quick text saying I’d return the call as soon as possible. It would have to be a very important call for me to pick up and carry on a conversation. I loathe—LOATHE!—being near someone having a phone conversation, equally so having someone near me.

I’d let it go to voicemail and then send a text saying that I couldn’t answer the phone at the moment and that I’d get back to the person later.

I wouldn’t usually call someone else while in a car with other people. The exception would be when driving with my husband, and still it would be unusual. I’d only do it for something that shouldn’t really wait. I wouldn’t answer the phone with a bunch of adults in the car either.

The length of the trip matters. All weekend I have been driving with 7 other adults in the car and I don’t have my phone out at all. The time in the car has been 10–60 minutes at a time. If the trip was 4+ hours I might text or check Facebook, etc.

Like @Pachy, I haven’t been in a car with 3 or four other people in a long time. Whether I took the call would depend on who was calling, who was in the car and what the call was about. I sometimes make calls in the car as a passenger because it’s time when I can really focus on the call. However, some calls might not be appropriate for other ears or I might want to devote my time to the people in the car rather than my phone. So it depends on the circumstances.

If the call came in, I’d look at it and probably return text unless it was from someone important (my parents for example).

As far as making calls, I would not make any call to chat, as I don’t like to chat when I’m out, if I can help it. I like to be home or at work when I can give the person my full attention. Likewise, if I know someone is out and about, shopping or running errands, that’s not when I want to call them. I’ll tell them call me back another time.

If in the car when I’m with others, I’d only make a call if it were important. For example, we’re coming over, what shall we bring? We’re running late. Stuff like that.

Whether to take the call at all should depend on whether or not the conversation has any relevance to the rest of the company in the car. If so, like you’re all going to meet the person on the other end of the call someplace, then have the call.
If not then politeness dictates you keep it real short if you take it at all.

But always be courteous with the speaking volume on a mobile phone, whether in a car or not, there’s never any reason for yelling into the phone like some people do.

Calling from the car would be just rude unless there is some connection to the other people in the car.

I would let it go to voice mail.
I went to lunch with 3 other co-workers one time and we were sitting in a booth. One of the girls got a phone call from her mother and proceeded to argue with her for 10 minutes. No one could talk because she was so loud. I finally said can’t this argument wait until after lunch? She hung up.
It was very annoying and uncomfortable.

I ask because we have a couple that works for us. If we work all day, usually we’ll make the 10–15 minute trip to town and have dinner. Then back.

It’s very often that as soon as we get in the car, she will make a call that lasts the majority if not the entirety of the trip. All the other 3 of us can do is sit and listen to her end of the conversation. More often than not, she’s talking to her 16yo granddaughter, who she treats like an 8yo. Repeating stuff and explaining things that should be screamingly obvious/common sense.

I find it very annoying and just wondered if that was a rational response.
Appears Fluther finds that it is.

I would turn my phone off. No one needs me that bad. Leave a message on my office phone.

@ibstubro Is she basically a mother to her granddaughter? Does the girl live with her?

Depending on who is calling, silence the phone and not answer, or answer to acknowledge and explain that I’m with other people and I’ll call them back. (I go out of my way to explain why I can’t take the call at the moment HOPING OTHER PEOPLE WILL PICK UP ON WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE GOOD MANNERS! We seem to have totally lost that skill when it comes to cell phones. Even the older adults who learned it along with their formula when they were babies seem to have lost it.

I’ve become somewhat immune to today’s lack of cell phone etiquette. The only practices that annoy the daylights out of me is when a driver is using a hand-held device and when someone in the car doesn’t explain that they aren’t alone, especially if the call is put on speaker. The person on the other end has a right to know who is privy to the conversation.

The only time I’ve made or taken a call as a passenger is when the family was on vacation and 3–4 cars were involved during the trip. They consisted of, “What exit do we take?” and “We’re stopping at Bob’s Produce Shack on the side of the road to pick up some peaches and corn.”

No, @JLeslie. Yesterday for instance, she called the granddaughter (who has both a mom household and dad household where she lives happily) to tell the GD that she might want the her to spend the night the next night, helping prepare for a relative’s visit. Then lists the things they might need do. Asks if the GD would be willing to take the relative to a hair appointment Friday morning (this was a Tuesday evening call). Largely repeats everything, and hangs up near time to reach our home base. When we get there? She and her husband have a 45 minute drive home through the country.

Except in a few specific situations, I treat my cel phone the same way I’d treat a land line with an answering machine or voice mail. If there are guests in the house and the land line rings, I don’t answer it UNLESS I am waiting for a SPECIFIC call. If I am, I check caller ID. If the caller is anyone other than the specific person I was waiting for, I don’t answer the phone. And I certainly never ever pick up the phone and call someone unless it’s for the benefit of the group, like ordering pizza or inviting a new person over because everyone else wants to see them.

I should turn off the ringer more often when I’m out with others, but I’m always afraid that I’ll forget to turn the ringer back on. Sometimes people with me get anxious when my phone starts ringing and I refuse to even look at it. Usually, I’ll just turn the ringer off when that happens.

I don’t know why everyone thinks that you HAVE to answer your cel phone when it rings. We lived for several decades not being available to take calls 100% of the time. There’s no reason we should be forced to be available at all times even with the phone turned on and in our pocket.

I wish more people thought this way. I hate being in a group and someone answers the phone. Everyone else feels an obligation to stop talking to the person on the phone can hear the call. If they go the extra rude mile and refuse to cut the call short, there can be a very long and uncomfortable silence in the group, because they are trying to be polite to the phone user even though the user is making no effort to be polite themselves.

I also try to never use the phone when there are strangers mingling around. I’ll text, but I won’t talk. But I feel really uncomfortable when someone is talking about private personal stuff so loudly that I end up eavesdropping when I don’t want to know anything about this stranger.

And it’s horrible when people talk on the phone in the elevator. Everyone is standing around, trying to avoid disturbing each other in every way—even simple eye contact is avoided. And here’s this person jabbering away in a loud voice at the expense of everyone else’s comfort. If you must talk on the phone in public, at least be courteous and not be so loud and intrusive to others.

I just wonder what causes people to speak so loudly on the phone in public places. Do they think we’re interested in their side of the conversation?

And on speaker, @Dutchess_III, so we’re forced to hear both sides of the inanity.

@Dutchess_III Exactly! I want to tell them that they are not talking through tin cans, that it is a phone and they don’t have to shout.

@chyna and @Dutchess_III: That’s called Cell Yell.

I was at Arby’s once and some young thing was in a heated argument with someone on her phone, yelling and cussing at the top of her lungs. When she hung up she looked around and said, “Can you believe that shit??!”
Rick and I gathered up the last of our food, and left. Ate the rest in the car.