What are the connotations of "there" in "hello/hi there"?

Question

I'm an ESL speaker and I'm not completely familiar with the underlying meaning conveyed when adding *there* to a greeting such as > Hello there compared to just > Hello (punctuation omitted for simplicity, but feel free to analyse with an exclamation mark/comma) or with "Hi (there)". What does *there* imply?

Answer 1

It doesn't really imply anything, but you would use it if that person was right in front of you. It would be odd to say it over the phone or through written messages, though it would not be wrong either in those contexts.