Well, any noise sent by your phone can echo. How does this relate to the buzz or beep sound when you’re on the line with someone else? If you have ever heard your voice repeating on a phone call, this is what was happening. This is typically called an echo, and in its most common form, you actually hear an echo of every sound you put through a phone. When the traveling sound hits such a junction, it’s possible for some or all of the sound signal to rebound off of the junction and return to the phone. When sound signals are sent across these lines, they run into junctions and switches. With plain old telephone communication (this is the technical term for traditional phone lines), the systems have very little noise filtering. Like everything mentioned above, this is much more common with analog phones as opposed to digital lines. The two conversations are on completely separate technology and cannot talk to each other #3 Echos If you’re on a cell phone and a fax comes through a landline, you are very unlikely to ever experience this type of line discontinuity. The lines are close enough that if they are not appropriately shielded, you can get what is called crosstalk between the lines.īasically, you hear some of the noise moving through the fax line. While you are on the phone, a fax can come through. If you have a landline phone and a separate fax line, you can experience this issue. It largely depends on how the fax is set up in the home or office. #2 Faxesįaxes are another device that can cause switching and the sounds associated with it.Ī fax line won’t always create this issue, but there are circumstances where it can occur. What you are hearing is something like an echo through the phone line because the lines are switching and causing changes. Note that you wouldn’t hear the answering machine itself. In conjunction with call waiting, it was normal to ignore the incoming call and then hear the disruption when that call was directed to the answering machine. You could hear the buzz or click when the answering machine initiated. With voicemail and digital recordings, you don’t need to connect something to a tape to record anymore.īack when tape answering machines were common, they could cause this sound all the time. Many older devices used this type of switching to talk on multiple lines, record conversations or supply a number of different functions and features. While call waiting is by far the most common culprit, it’s not the only reason you might hear this sound or something similar to it.Īnything that causes switching in the line without disconnecting you can potentially lead to the same experience. While you can’t simultaneously talk on both lines, the phone does have to interact with them at the same time, and it can create abnormal sounds. As you read above, this effectively involves the phone engaging with more than one line. Do Other Line Continuity Disruptions Sound Like a Beep or Buzz? (3 Things)Ĭall waiting creates a sound when the continuity of the phone line changes. Call waiting establishes a connection to a separate call line, and you can hear sounds from the continuity disruption in your phone call. Your phone doesn’t have to physically have a cord attached to it.Įven with cell phones, traditional calling mechanisms use ‘lines’ to make everything work. Keep in mind that this is referencing lines in a technical sense as they apply to phone systems. You hear it because these are non-digital communications, and the lines impact each other when they connect or disconnect. It is when the second line connects to allow the call waiting notification that a traditional phone call can create the beep or buzz sound. Well, the way that call waiting works is by temporarily extending a second functioning line to your phone. Normally, you don’t hear notifications from the other phone on the call unless it is through the use of a speakerphone or similar setup. Why can you hear someone else’s call waiting? When they receive a call waiting notice, it can potentially be heard over the line? The person you are talking to probably also has that feature since it has been standard for a while now.

It allows you to put the current conversation on hold and talk to the incoming caller. That beep or buzz sound that you hear is your call waiting. If you have a call waiting service on your phone line, you get a beep or notification if you have an incoming call while you are on the phone with someone else.

3 Why Do I Hear a Beep or Buzz on a Digital Phone? Is the Beep or Buzz a Call Waiting?

Bleep noise