How can I check voice messages?

Voice messages are audio recordings left for you when you miss or don’t answer an incoming call. They provide a way to retrieve information from callers even if you aren’t able to speak to them in real time. Checking your voice messages is important because they may contain time sensitive information or requests that need a response. Reasons you may want to check your voice messages include:

• Returning missed calls from urgent contacts like family or work
• Responding to inquiries from existing clients and business opportunities
• Hearing information from contacts like doctors’ offices or service providers
• Keeping up with requests from staff, volunteers, or others if you oversee an organization or team

This guide will cover how to check voice messages across landlines, mobile phones, smartphone apps, and more. We’ll also go into other aspects like saving and archiving messages for future reference.

Check Messages on a Landline Phone

To check voice messages on a traditional landline home phone, you first need to access your voicemail system. Here are the basic steps:

1. Pick up your landline phone receiver and dial *98 or your voicemail access number. This number may vary by phone company or service provider. Refer to your phone bill or manual for details.
2. When prompted, enter your voicemail PIN. This is typically a 3-6 digit passcode you set up when activating your voicemail service.
3. Follow the audio menu prompts using your phone keypad to listen and manage messages. Common options are:
   • Press 1 to listen to new messages
   • Press 2 to listen to saved messages
   • Press 3 to advanced options like greetings

If accessing voicemail from your home landline phone, the steps are straightforward. However, you can also check landline messages remotely from another phone. Learn how in the next section.

Check Messages on a Mobile Phone

To check and listen to your voicemail on a mobile phone, start by dialing your phone number or dialing *86. You’ll then be prompted to enter your voicemail passcode, which is usually provided by your mobile carrier when service is established. Once you enter the correct voicemail passcode, you’ll be able to access your voicemail inbox and playback any unheard messages.

If you’ve forgotten your voicemail password, you can contact your mobile provider for assistance with resetting it. Many carriers also enable voicemail password resets directly from your mobile phone by dialing a special code.

Additionally, most smartphones, such as iPhones and Android devices, integrate voicemail access directly into the phone’s native Phone or Dialer app. The process for accessing voicemail may be slightly different when using a smartphone, but generally involves opening the Phone app, selecting “Voicemail” from the keypad or menu, entering your passcode, then listening to messages. Refer to your mobile device’s user manual for detailed steps.

Check Messages on Smartphone Apps

The most popular way to check voice messages these days is with a visual voicemail app on your smartphone. These apps let you see a list of voicemail messages, just like you would see a list of text messages in a messaging app. Visual voicemail is highly convenient as you can quickly view a list of messages, play or delete messages, and mark them as read or unread.

Some popular visual voicemail apps include:

• Google Voice (Source) – A free app for iOS and Android that provides visual voicemail integrated with many major carriers.
• T-Mobile Visual Voicemail (Source) – Allows T-Mobile customers on qualifying plans to manage voicemail through an easy-to-use interface.

These apps sync with your mobile carrier’s voicemail system so you can easily access all voice messages on your smartphone. They provide features like voicemail-to-text transcription, archiving capabilities, and more. Many people now rely solely on smartphone visual voicemail rather than checking old-fashioned voicemail through phone calls.

Check Messages Remotely

You can check your voice messages remotely in a couple ways without needing physical access to your phone.

Calling Voicemail Remotely

Most phone systems allow you to call into your voicemail box from another phone line to listen to messages. Typically you dial your own phone number, then press * during your voicemail greeting. You’ll be prompted to enter your voicemail PIN to access messages (Source).

With some systems like Mitel, you may need to have a dedicated remote voicemail access number set up by your administrator (Source). Check with them on the proper procedure.

Accessing Online

Many modern phone systems integrate with web and mobile apps that allow you to view and play back voicemail messages through an online interface or app. This gives you access from any internet-connected device without needing to directly call voicemail.

For example, Noctel has a built-in web portal that enables remote voicemail access after some initial setup by an administrator (Source). User permissions and security settings need configured to allow this.

View Transcripts of Voice Messages

Several companies offer voicemail-to-text transcription services that provide audio-to-text transcription of your phone’s voice messages.

These services work by giving you a dedicated phone number that callers can leave messages with. The voicemails are then transcribed into text transcripts by advanced speech recognition algorithms.

Voicemail transcription services allow you to read voicemail messages instead of having to listen to them. This can save time and make it easier to skim and sort voice messages.

Popular voicemail transcription companies include Messaging Service, G12 Communications, and Spoke Phone.

With voicemail to text transcription, you can search transcripts, forward text versions of messages, and even reply by text or email since the messages are digitized.

Save and Archive Voice Messages

There are a few options for saving voice messages long-term so you can access them in the future:

• Use your phone or voicemail system’s archive feature, if available. For example, the Cisco Unity Connection system allows users to archive messages to a .wav file before deleting them (Cisco Unity Connection 11.x User Guide). Archived messages are then stored indefinitely.
• Forward important voicemails to an email address as an audio file attachment. The messages will remain in your email as long as you don’t delete them.
• Use a third party app like Google Voice which stores voicemails online indefinitely for free.

Saving voicemails to listen to later or for record keeping can be useful. Just be aware of any storage limits based on your phone system or app.

Notify Contacts of New Messages

You can set up notifications to alert your contacts when they receive a new voicemail from you. This allows them to promptly listen to your message.

On Android devices, open the Google Voice app and tap the menu icon in the top left. Go to Settings > Notifications and toggle “New voicemail notifications” on (source). You can also customize additional notification settings here.

On iPhones, open the Phone app and go to Settings > Notifications > Voicemail. Toggle notifications on and customize options like sounds, banners, and badges (source).

For other smartphone models, check your messaging or voicemail app’s settings to enable new voicemail notifications. You may also be able to customize notifications for contacts.

Enabling this feature allows your contacts to promptly receive and listen to new voicemails from you. It prevents messages from being missed or listened to late.

Troubleshooting Issues

There are a few common issues that can come up when dealing with voicemail. If you find that you’re unable to access your voicemail or there are issues with callers not being able to leave messages, here are some troubleshooting tips:

First, make sure your voicemail box is properly set up and enabled. On mobile phones, be sure voicemail is turned on in the phone settings. On landlines, make sure voicemail subscription is active with your provider (source).

For issues retrieving messages, check for connectivity and network interruptions on your mobile device or issues with your landline connection (source). You may also need to reset your voicemail password, verify your phone number is associated with the correct voicemail box, or clear out storage if the box is full.

If callers are told your voicemail box is not accepting messages when you feel it should be, this is referred to as a voicemail box being “closed” or “unavailable”. Contact your mobile or landline carrier for assistance as this generally requires correcting something on the provider side. They can verify if your voicemail box needs to be opened or reactivated.

Voicemail Alternatives

While voicemail is a ubiquitous form of communication, people may prefer to receive messages through alternatives such as text, email, or messaging apps. For those seeking options beyond voicemail:

Text messaging is a popular alternative for quick mobile communication that does not require live interaction. Most phones have built-in text messaging, or users can utilize free apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Texts can be more convenient to send and receive.

Email is another common messaging alternative. While not as instantaneous as texts or calls, emails allow you to communicate at your own pace and do not require live interaction. Email chains also keep conversations organized in one place.

Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer features like video calling, group messaging, media sharing, and live presence indicators. These apps essentially combine texting, calling, voicemail, and more into a single interface.

So while voicemail fills an important communication role, modern messaging alternatives provide additional options that may better suit certain situations or individual preferences.