Because some things are urgent and I may not notice a straight to voicemail for a long time. I understand if junk calls are so frequent that some people are basically forced to ignore non-contact phone calls but it seems sub-optimal for the couple times a week situation which is my case.

> Because some things are urgent and I may not notice a straight to voicemail for a long time.

How so? My phone notifies me that the original call came in, and also notifies me that a voicemail was left. If I'm in a situation where I wouldn't notice a voicemail was left, I wouldn't notice the call in the first place anyway.

By default, calls ring or vibrate constantly so that you don't ignore them. Because they're intended for synchronous communication.

Notifications (including voicemails) are just a short ping, jumbled in with all your other notifications. Because they're intended for async communication.

So no, by design, your phone is meant for you to notice somebody calling more than a voicemail being left.

The latest iOS instantly transcribes voicemail. I find it handy to pick up the calll midway through. Just to be clear, I’ve used it exactly once so far. We’ll see how that goes.