It's not OK to use your speakerphone in public, says almost everyone. 'It's not all about you' - National Post

U.S. Vice President JD Vance holds a mobile phone while on a call with U.S. President Donald Trump to a microphone during a "Day of Friendship" in Budapest, Hungary on April 7, 2026.Article contentOn the subway, in a coffee shop or a checkout line, somebody nearby likely has their phone on full volume.

A bylaw bars anyone on Toronto’s transit system from using an audio device without headphones, and the fine is $195. In three years, one person has been ticketed under it, for playing loud music and “ignoring repeated requests to turn it off,” Stuart Green, a spokesperson for the Toronto Transit Commission, said in an email to National Post.

The phone in your pocket is also a speaker. Is it rude to use it out loud, and should you say something?

“When you are in a social space, you have a responsibility to be aware of the space where you are and other people around you,” said Charles MacPherson, an etiquette expert, butler, and president of Charles MacPherson Associates, a Toronto company that trains domestic staff. On transit, in a library or in a quiet coffee shop, “you have a social responsibility to be aware that it’s a quiet space.”

But what about less-quiet places, like at a hockey game, where everyone is yelling, or a warehouse floor? “For me, this is black and white,” Macpherson said. “Are you being respectful of others or are you being disrespectful?”

Exposing others to your conversations, music or TikTok videos on your phone’s speaker is inappropriate, he said, because it interferes with everyone else’s enjoyment of the space.

“We tend to be very much a ‘me’ society… I need to talk to my friend. I have a right to listen to my music. I need to catch up on this program before it gets cut off Netflix and I’ve got two seasons to go.” The issue, he said, is that “there are eight billion people in this world — it’s not all about you.”

Smartphones themselves are part of the problem, MacPherson said, because they are “designed to absorb you,” and people “forget about others because you’re so absorbed by what you’re doing.”