[voodoodaddy]

I see that when I make a call, there is a button that says flash with an arrow pointing down. What exactly does this do?

[imann101]

switch to the call thats incoming (if there is one)

same thing the flash button does on a normal phone

[suitedup07]

The same thing it does on a regular house phone, switches between the calls, I believe.

[MustangChris04]

with call waiting, you can hit that button to answer another call and the other person will be put on hold.

[Sooks]

same as normal phone .

[ddarvish]

wow was that a serious question?

[rob198]

I haven't had a home phone in so long I forgot what flash meant

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[StormUsage]

How does one make a three way call? I see the button there on the phone screen while a call is in progress.

I'm assuming you just click that, scroll to the contacts name in your list (or dial it using the "use once" feature) and then hit that same button again and it brings everyone on the line?

[eth555]

I forgot what the flash button meant also. I have not had a land line in years. Thanks for the post and answer

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[voodoodaddy]

wow was that a serious question?

I haven't had a home phone in so long I forgot what flash meant

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I forgot what the flash button meant also. I have not had a land line in years. Thanks for the post and answer

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Ive never seen a phone with "flash" on it before. And I also havent had a landline in probably 8yrs.

[jbjtkbw007]

How does one make a three way call? I see the button there on the phone screen while a call is in progress.

I'm assuming you just click that, scroll to the contacts name in your list (or dial it using the "use once" feature) and then hit that same button again and it brings everyone on the line?

I think you pretty much hit it right on the head.

[swp09]

I have to say I didn't know this either! landlines? hmmm I've heard of them

[neocaster]

Flash meant close the switchhook connection for a moment. Before there was a button for it, you actually had to push the switchhook down for a moment to get to the other call. If you held it down too long, it dropped the current call then passed the new one on to the phone.

[CharlesH]

Flash meant close the switchhook connection for a moment. Before there was a button for it, you actually had to push the switchhook down for a moment to get to the other call. If you held it down too long, it dropped the current call then passed the new one on to the phone.

Yes, this goes back to the prehistoric days when a phone had a handset connected by wires to a base unit, which was in turn hooked by wires to the phone line . "Flashing" meant to press the hook on which the handset rested for a brief time, not long enough to count as a "hangup". And there was a time when phones had a rotary "dial" with 10 holes in it that you turned to "dial" a call. Kidding aside, there are young people today who would have no idea how to place a call with a dial phone (so I have heard). And in a remarkable example of back-compatibility, dial phones will still work on contemporary landlines (don't know about things like cable voice modems). When call waiting and three-way calling was introduced, dial phones were still very common (dating myself).

[neocaster]

CharlesH, I'm happy to report rotary phones work fine with in-house VoIP from either a cable modem or the magic jack. Just run from the device to any open RJ11 jack in the house and you're live. I have an avocado green rotary desk phone in my office, and another of the same color in my kitchen (complete with 25' handset cord. The closest thing we had to cordless. You could get all the way to the basement stairs with it, leaving the rest of the family to play LIMBO!)

[EnergyPlus]

Hilarious thread and only reinforces what I've been saying in a lot of threads. Those of us "old far*s" (and I'm one of them at 59, soon to be 60) take for granted that so many of the younger generation knows a lot about this stuff. The truth is, they're often not only unfamiliar with it, but were never even EXPOSED to the things we grew up with. i remember the first days of being able to "flash" to another call..first, it was UNREAL that you could even GET a call coming in while you were on another call, but the whole flashing thing took a bit of practice. Do it too fast and you were not connected to the incoming call, do it too slowly and you hung up on the first call, lol. Remember the days when you could go to any pay phone and "flash out" the phone number you wanted to call without having to put a nickel (yep) or a dime in the slot?

Back in about 1960, me and my good buddy, who lived a few blocks away, set up a tin can with string thing. It was a very long distance to keep the proper tension on the string so it worked right, but we managed to make it happen. Then, another friend who lived in a house about halfway between us, wanted in on the action, so we tried making a T to loop him in. I seem to recall it worked...BARELY, but even the mere muffled sound of a voice, regardless of whether or not you could understand it, was a thrill!