How to Set Up Voicemail on an iPhone

It’s great to get calls from friends and family, but sometimes, you need some you time. Or maybe you’re just suspicious of an unknown number calling you. Either way, in these moments, you need to send callers straight to voicemail. If you haven’t set up voicemail on your iPhone, it’s fairly easy to do.

It’s worth mentioning that voicemail is a carrier feature, so if for some reason you’re not able to set up voicemail on your iPhone, you may need to reach out to your carrier.

What is Visual Voicemail?

One handy feature of iPhones is Visual Voicemail—most carriers support the feature but it is possible some might not or may require a specific plan. Visual Voicemail just means you can view your voicemail messages in a list on your iPhone, rather than dialing into your carrier’s voicemail service and putting in your voicemail password. You can play/pause and even rewind messages in Visual Voicemail.

How to turn on Live Voicemail

A new feature in iOS 17 called Live Voicemail lets you automatically see a real-time transcription while someone is leaving you a message. It’s a bit like the Call Screen feature available on Google Pixel phones. Live Voicemail doesn’t require a carrier to support the feature and works on all iPhones that can run iOS 17, which includes the iPhone XR and up to the iPhone 15 series. To turn on Live Voicemail, go to Settings and find the Phone setting. Then you should see an option for Live Voicemail and tap the toggle to turn it on. If the toggle is green, then Live Voicemail is enabled.

How to set up voicemail on iPhone

To set up voicemail on your iPhone, first, open the Phone app. Next, tap on the Voicemail icon in the bottom right (the icon looks like two circles with a line connecting them). If it’s your first time setting up voicemail, you should see a message with a button that says Set Up Now. Next, you’ll be asked to create a voicemail password, which is typically four digits. After that, you’ll be asked to choose your greeting. You can either choose Default, which will be the standard automated voicemail greeting, or you can record a custom greeting. To record a custom greeting, hit the record button and the stop button once you’re finished. Once you’re happy with the results, tap Save in the top right and your voicemail is now set up. When you’ve set up your voicemail, Visual Voicemail should also be enabled, but may require a restart of your iPhone for it to work.

How to listen to voicemail messages on iPhone

To listen to your messages in your voicemail, open up the Phone app on your iPhone. Next, tap the Voicemail tab on the bottom right. If your carrier supports Visual Voicemail, you should see your voicemail messages appear in a list in the Voicemail tab as well as a transcription of their message. Tap a message you want to listen to and press the play button. Hitting the speaker icon will play the message through your iPhone’s speaker. The blue phone icon will call the person back and the red trash icon will delete the message. If you want to save a voicemail, tap the Share icon (the arrow pointing up with a box) to save it to your iPhone or share it via messages or AirDrop.