Voicemail

How to permanently delete voicemails on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 1, 2018

Since its inception the iPhone has supported Visual Voicemail, a feature that lets you see a list of your voicemails and choose which one to interact with without having to wade through all of them.

These messages are saved forever until you manually delete them, or your carrier erases them. Keep in mind that your carrier might not support the Visual Voicemail feature at all.

If you have set up and use Visual Voicemail on your iPhone, voicemails people leave in your inbox can quickly pile up, causing not just unnecessary clutter in the interface but also wasting your iPhone's precious storage space.

Follow the instructions provided in this tutorial to delete unwanted voicemails and claim back the storage space they occupy.

How to save your iPhone voicemails to the Voice Memos app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 21, 2022

The iOS Phone app makes it easy to save your voicemail to the Voice Memos app. Saving voicemails as voice memos lets you trim the audio before sharing them with others. Plus, the files in the Voice Memos app are automatically uploaded to iCloud and stay safely saved. So, if there is a memorable voicemail, you can keep it forever in iCloud.

In this brief tutorial, we show you how to save your voicemail as an audio note.

Rumor: Siri-powered iCloud Voicemail that transcribes messages due in 2016 with iOS 10

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2015

A Siri-powered voicemail service for iPhones is in the works and it will transcribe your voicemail messages, if a report published Monday by Business Insider is anything to go by.

Writer James Cook claims that Apple employees are already testing an upcoming voicemail service “which uses Siri to answer your calls and transcribe voicemail messages.”

How to change or reset your iPhone voicemail password

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 11, 2019

When iPhone first came out in 2007, it was the first device to include Visual Voicemail, a feature that allows users to view their voicemails, scroll through them, and of course listen to them, directly from the device. With Visual Voicemail, no need to dial a number and go through an automated message system to listen to your voicemails.

Since everything is now handled directly on the phone, you can also change your voicemail password directly from your iPhone.

How to recover deleted voicemails on your iPhone

Lory Gil ∙ Updated July 11, 2022

Everyone has done it at least once. You listen to a phone message, and either you don’t think you’ll need to listen to it again, or you accidentally hit the delete button, and you’ve lost the message forever. Or maybe not...

Apple must have known that we’d all be a bunch of delete-happy maniacs that have message-erasing remorse at some point in our lives. The good news is that there is a way to undelete and recover voicemails, and we’re going to tell you how.

Libon Voicefeed is like Google Voice for those who can’t use Google Voice

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated April 28, 2017

Google Voice is an exceptional tool, but the problem is that it just isn't available worldwide. If, like some of the iDB team, you happen to have the audacity to live outside the United States, then you are completely out of luck.

While Google promises that Google Voice is indeed on its way beyond American borders, there are alternatives out there that do the same thing, and if you're an iPhone owner, one of those alternatives is Libon Voicefeed from developer Orange Vallee.

A free download from the App Store and compatible with a wide range of mobile phone carriers across the world, Libon Voicefeed plugs the hole left by Google's reluctance, or inability, to bring Voice to the world. And it does a very good job of it, too...

Apple sued over voicemail patents

Jake Smith ∙ February 22, 2012

Adding to its large array of ongoing lawsuits, Apple has been sued by patent holding company Brandywine Communications Technologies over two voicemail patents. The lawsuit was filed in a local Florida court on Tuesday, reports GigaOm.

The patents in questions are No. 6,236,717 and No. 5,719,922, which were filed in 2001 and 1998 respectively by Brandywine. One patent is officially described as...

Whip Your Phone App Into Shape With StartDial

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 3, 2012

Do you ever get annoyed when you open your Phone app and it doesn't go to the section you were expecting?

With StartDial, that problem is a thing of the past. StartDial allows you to always start at a specific section of your Phone app every time you open it by means of a predefined setting.

It's even smart enough to start at your recents whenever you have missed calls. If you make a lot of phone calls, and your iPhone is jailbroken, check out our hands-on experience with StartDial inside...

How to Get Free Visual Voicemail on T-Mobile Using ‘YouMail’

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 25, 2017

Once upon a time I unlocked my iPhone 3GS and used it on T-Mobile in order avoid AT&T's more expensive service.

It was a decent experience, but two noteworthy flaws marred it. Number one; I obviously had no 3G-network access since the iPhone doesn't contain the circuitry needed to piggyback T-Mobile's 3G network. Number two; I had no access to Visual Voicemail.

Of course there's no way to fix problem number one, that's an inherent issue regarding hardware. Problem number two, though, is fixable.

In this video tutorial, I'll show you how to use the jailbroken version of YouMail to get real visual voicemail on your iPhone for free...

Speech-to-Text Conversion Coming to iOS 5?

Alex Heath ∙ May 15, 2011

Following our report that iOS 5 will have voicemail transcription, a new patent has surfaced that details even more voice integration possibilities. Namely, it appears that Apple is looking into a native text-to-speech and speech-to-text converter for the iPhone.

This patent reveals some very interesting applications that could result from such a technology in iOS. Beyond the basic voice and text transcription, this patented converter could allow for a more unified experience between speech and text communication...

iOS 5 Will Transcribe Your Voicemail to Text

Alex Heath ∙ May 11, 2011

Following the news that Apple is partnering with Naunce for voice integration in iOS 5, we've heard from an inside source at Apple that iOS 5 will allow you to read your voicemails. Google Voice has offered voicemail transcription for quite some time, and, according to our anonymous source, Apple is hard at work to implement this type of service into iOS 5.

More cloud-based features are rumored to debut in Apple's next major release of iOS when the software is previewed at WWDC this June. A more Google-esque approach to cloud services makes sense if Apple wants to stay competitive in the cloud space. Voicemail transcription would be one more feature to beef up Apple's cloud offerings...

‘ON Voicefeed’ Makes Customizable Voicemail Greetings for iPhone Easy

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 3, 2018

When Sebastien suggested that I try out this new voicemail app from Orange Vallee, I was definitely skeptical. I've tried 3rd party visual voicemail apps before on Blackberrys and Android alike, and have always been disappointed. I've yet to try any on the iPhone though, and this promised a few new tricks so I figured why not.

The download is free and available here. Where the other visual voicemail programs floundered, this one shined. The most dreaded part about setting these 3rd party voicemail services up is the activation process. ON Voicefeed, like most other services, requires you to setup an account. This is done by entering in a tiny bit of info and authorizing it with a code that is sent directly to your iPhone via text...