You get it. Let me answer your point about “get a cellphone”.
First, we don’t want cellphones in the house. We don’t want more unnecessary RF/EMF.
Next, I don’t want to try to use a micro-screen and microscopic buttons to try and type, with the absurd spell checker changing everything I write. I have a proper desktop computer and 30 inch 4k display, I’ll use that.
Next, cellular doesn’t even WORK in my house. You would have to go down the road and up the hill to even get a reliable signal.
Next, my home phone number has been in use for over 30 years. That is the ONLY number people know. No one uses my mobile numbers except “extended car warranty” notifications. We use Unified Communications. You call my main Twilio number and the call gets routed to the proper ring groups, or maybe to a SIP app running on any one of our families mobile phones if they are off-prem. Hell, I don’t even know the cellular phone numbers. I would have to go look them up.
I’m not expecting a solution. I see big businesses are getting worse and worse and there is no fixing it. I just wanted to vent. For my family, we use our own on-prem XMPP Jabber network. The only thing SMS would be for is what you said, dental appointments, stuff like that. Sadly, many people are stuck on “everything has to be a cellphone app”. Yeah, not doing that. I’ll go live in the woods before that happens.
Thanks for listening.