How To Tell If Someone Listened To Your Voicemail? Trust The Answer

Get notified of your text messages, missed calls or voicemail.

Change your notifications

By default, you’ll be notified when there’s a new text message, missed call, or voicemail in the Google Voice app.

Open the Google Voice app. Tap Menu Settings in the top left. Under Messages, Calls, or Voicemail, tap the notification setting: Message notifications

Missed call notifications

Voicemail Notifications Tap On or Off. Set On to the following options: Importance – Tap and then select the importance level for notifications.

– Tap and then select the importance level for notifications. Sound – Tap , select a ringtone, and then tap OK .

– Tap , select a ringtone, and then tap . Vibrate – turn on or off. Available when Importance is set to High or Urgent.

– Turn on or off. Available when set to High or Urgent. On the lock screen – Tap and then select the notification content to display.

– Tap and then select the notification content to display. Show notification dot – Turn on or off.

– Turn on or off. Override Do Not Disturb – Turn on or off. Available when Importance is set to High or Urgent.

Receive an email when you miss a call

Open the Voice app. Tap Menu Settings in the top left. Under Calls, turn on Receive email notifications for missed calls.

Set a custom ringtone

Important: These steps only work on Android 8 and later. These steps only work on Android 8 and above. Learn how to check your Android version

You can set custom ringtones in Google Voice on Android devices.

To customize a ringtone in Google Voice Open the Google Voice app . Tap Menu Settings in the top left. Under Calls, tap Incoming call notifications Sound. Browse the ringtone options. To listen to a ringtone, tap it. When you find the ringtone you want, tap on it. On some Android phones, tap Save in the top right corner to save the new ringtone.

: This setting only applies to calls made through the Google Voice app. Calls to your device’s phone number go through your wireless service provider and ring your device.

I sent a voice text to a friend but didn’t save it to my thread. And it was automatically deleted after the default 2 minutes.

Does the voice text stay in the recipient’s messaging thread until they have a chance to hear it, and then decide whether or not to keep it?

Basically, do remote deletes on their thread happen after it’s deleted on my thread?

Raise To Listen is a handy feature in modern versions of iOS that lets you literally raise your iPhone to listen to a received audio message and respond by sending new voice text. But the feature isn’t entirely reliable for all users (especially those using an iPhone case, more on that in a moment) and can therefore cause some annoyances when a message is accidentally marked as played or played, and because audio messages default to from remove them yourself, these audio messages can disappear from your iOS device without ever actually being heard. Perhaps even more annoying, some third-party cases and protective screen products can cause the Raise to Listen reply feature to trigger at inopportune times or cut off in the middle of a spoken text, sometimes sending an incomplete audio message.

As you might have guessed, if the “lift to listen” audio message is misbehaving, you can often solve the problem by removing the case or a third-party protective layer from the iPhone. But for some users who tend to drop their devices, going without cases doesn’t always make sense. As such, Raise to Listen troubleshooting is difficult for those of us who rely on protective cases. Another option is to simply disable the Raise to Listen and Raise to Respond feature for now and prevent erroneous listening or response behavior.

Open the Settings app and go to Messages. Under Audio, scroll down and toggle the Raise to Listen switch to the OFF position

Very simple, and while you’ll lose the Raise to Listen and Raise to Respond features, this will also prevent the inconsistent behavior that causes messages to be read before listening or sent before the recording is complete.

Proximity sensor interference a likely cause of strange audio message behavior

Why doesn’t Raise to Listen always work consistently or incorrectly detect you’re trying to listen to or record a message? It’s hard to say with absolute certainty, but for many users the problem isn’t really the Raise to Listen feature in iOS, but rather the third-party case or shield they put on their iPhone. This is especially true if the iPhone case is one of the bulky protective models where it may cover or cloud part of the proximity sensor near the iPhone earpiece speaker, which is pointed out here:

On a white iPhone this is fairly obvious, but black iPhones hide the sensor very well, making it almost invisible. Similarly, many of the clear plastic protective shields placed on iPhone screens to protect it from scratches can interfere with Raise to Listen and cause it to behave strangely. Another solution would of course be to cut out the part of the plastic cover (or case) that covers this sensor, but if more bulk is added to the iPhone it still might not work quite as intended, so buy a case that doesn’t interfere with it the sensor is perhaps a better solution. Or just disable the setting if you find it annoying.

We’ve all had to make phone calls that we wish we didn’t have to carry. When the phone rings, we pray that voice mail will answer. (Millennials understand the struggle.) And while the FCC is cracking down on robocallers who leave “ringless voicemails,” there are still ways for the average person to avoid the horror of talking to another human on the phone.

Slydial

Slydial(Opens in a new window) lets a caller go straight to a cell phone number’s voicemail. Even better, the basic service is free and no signup is required to use it unless you need more features.

To use Slydial, dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425). If prompted, enter the US cell phone number of the person you want to call. Once the service connects you, leave your voicemail and then just hang up.

You can also use the Slydial app for iOS(Opens in new window) or Android(Opens in new window). Create a free account with the service, then select a contact through the app or manually enter a phone number. After the app connects the call, leave a voicemail and hang up when done.

Unfortunately, not all phone numbers can be dialed: Slydial does not work with landline phones, third-party voicemail services, VoIP numbers, or prepaid mobile phones. If you subscribe to one of the premium plans, you can eliminate the service’s ads and send messages to multiple contacts at the same time.

Alternative services exist, but most voice messaging services do not offer free functionality and most focus on messaging tens or hundreds of contacts at once.

Call via voicemail

(Photo: ninefotostudio / Shutterstock)

Traditional voicemail services used to offer this feature, but visual voicemail (with a visual interface that lets you access messages directly) has largely eliminated this possibility. If your phone doesn’t have a visual mailbox and you need to call an inbox to check your messages, you might still be able to use this feature.

Check with your carrier for details, but there may be an option to send a message on the voicemail menu. This allows you to send a voice message from your voicemail to someone else’s inbox without having to make a phone call first. Even if you have this feature, you can only use it to send messages to contacts with the same carrier as you. For example, Verizon customers can only send voice messages to other Verizon customers.

voice messages

Many messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp, offer the ability to send voice messages to contacts without even having to make a call. Normally you would send a voice message by opening a conversation in the app and holding the microphone button. Then release to send the message or swipe to delete.

Apple iPhone users can send voice messages from Apple’s Messages app by tapping the microphone button in the text field (this only works when messaging other iPhones). By default, these messages only last two minutes before being deleted, but you can change that. Tap Keep under a sent voice message to keep it.

For future voice messages, go to Settings > Messages and tap Expire under Audio Messages. You can set the expiration date to never, but this only affects your call recording, not the recipient’s.

Apple’s Voice Memos app can also be used to record a voice message. Then tap the ellipses icon and open the share window to find the right target.

Cole Saladino/Thrillist

Editor’s Note: This hack is for iPhone users only. We apologize Androider; You’re too beautiful to be blocked anyway. Apple has made it easy as pie to block individual phone numbers, which is much appreciated by those of us stalked by persistent robo-callers and overzealous Tinder matches. But have you become so annoying yourself that you’ve earned a spot on someone’s blocked list? In this age of rampant ghosting and straight-forward text awfulness, if you suspect you might be stuck, the answer is probably yes. So you can examine if your call is going straight to nowhere and – bonus! — how to get around the block.

One ring and straight to voicemail means you may be blocked. Even if you’ve been blocked, you can still call and leave a message—the intended recipient simply won’t be notified. When you call, there’s one telltale sign to look out for. If you only hear one ring before voicemail answers, there are three possible reasons: your phone is off, you have set your phone to automatically redirect to voicemail (i.e. you have do not disturb mode enabled), or you have been banned. To eliminate the first two, try calling a few more times; If the one-ring-to-voicemail persists and you don’t get a call back, chances are you’re blocked.

Check the Status of Your Sent iMessages Another way to test if you’re blacklisted is to see if they’re receiving your iMessages. If you last knew the recipient had their read receipts enabled and now it just says “Delivered” after sending, you should be suspicious. If they aren’t of the Read Receipt type, but there isn’t a delivery receipt (a “Delivered” message under your blue bubble) or an error message that suggests you resend them as text, something may be wrong.

Screenshot via iOS 9

Here’s how you can bypass it: Block your caller ID To bypass all number bans, simply block your caller ID – however, enabling this option is dependent on your carrier. If you have AT&T, go to Settings > Phone > Show my caller ID and turn it off. Verizon customers must dial *67 before entering the 10-digit phone number (others should be able to find instructions on their carrier’s websites). Your call is presented as No Caller ID. If the person actually picks up and sounds surprised to hear from you, you know for sure that you’ve been blocked… and now that you’ve thoroughly scared that person, chances are you’ll stay away. Forever. (Needless to say, you probably shouldn’t do this unless it’s an emergency and you need to get in touch with that person urgently.)

For the blockers, you can listen to voicemails left by people you have blocked. While you never get a notification when they call you, your phone saves the voicemails left. To access them, scroll to the bottom of the Voicemail tab – if present, they’re in the Blocked Messages folder under the folder labeled Deleted Messages.

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If you’ve ever wanted an easy way to forward contacts straight to voicemail, the latest version of Google’s Stock Contacts app has made that wish a reality.

Android developers are always striving to make users’ life easier and more convenient. In addition, they also try to prevent us from having to deal with calls from contacts we don’t necessarily want to hear from. While that may sound cold, you might be working in the field and certain clients tend to blow up your phone, making it difficult to concentrate or get work done. If so, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to easily route those calls straight to voicemail automatically?

Thankfully, the Android developers have thought of that. And in Android 8.0 (Oreo), they made it incredibly easy. Sure, in previous iterations it was possible to forward calls to voicemail, but now it’s become a breeze. In fact, it’s now very easy to forward and unforward a contact directly to voicemail, allowing you to make your admin day a little more uninterrupted.

Let me show you how. I will be demonstrating on an Essential PH-1 with a very standard Android 8.1, but this should work on any device using Android 8 and the latest version of the Google Contacts app. If your device uses another app for contacts, I strongly recommend that you install the default app from the Google Play Store (since this method doesn’t work with any other contacts app).

NOTE: Android Oreo is not required for this setup. The latest version of the Google Contacts app (version 2.7.2.195464261) is.

How to route contacts

You will be surprised how easy it is. Open the Contacts app and find the contact you want to automatically forward to voicemail. Open that contact and tap the menu button in the top right corner. From the resulting menu, tap Route to Voicemail (Figure A).

Figure A

That’s it. Every time that particular contact tries to call you, the call is automatically transferred to voicemail.

Unforward the contact

If you want to unforward the contact from voicemail, simply open the contact, tap the menu button, and tap Unforward to Voicemail. That’s it.

Easy call control

With this method, you can easily control when a contact can call you or your voicemail directly, making your day a little more uninterrupted. Just remember to turn off those contacts after a long day in the IT trenches or you might miss some important calls.

See also:

In our previous two Android phone lessons, we explained how to set up a voicemail account and choose the perfect greeting for callers when you can’t answer a call. That’s great and all, but you probably want to know how to check your voicemail messages so you know what the people who called you actually wanted! Don’t worry; We will show you how to do this in this tutorial.

To listen to your voicemail messages on an Android phone:

Turn on your phone and open the Phone app. Call your voicemail system. Enter your voicemail system passcode. Tap the button that allows you to check messages. Listen to each message and tap the appropriate button to play, delete, or save. Press end call when done.

The keys you need to press for these instructions depend on who your telecom provider is, so we’ll add a little more detail below in case our quick steps aren’t enough to proceed. We also have a “cheat sheet” of voicemail commands for different carriers, so be sure to scroll down and check it out.

How to listen to your voicemail messages on Android

1. Turn on your phone and open the Phone app.

Press and hold your phone’s power button to turn it on. Once you’ve unlocked your main screen, tap on the phone app to launch it.

2. Access the dial pad.

You need to enter the Phone app’s dial pad as if you were calling a real person. To do this, tap the keypad icon at the bottom of the screen.

3. Call your voicemail system.

Call your voicemail account by entering their phone number using the keys on the dialpad, and then pressing the green call button. Or you can just press and hold the 1 key as a shortcut.

4. Enter your voicemail system password.

You’ll be prompted to enter your voicemail account passcode if you’ve set one (which I hope you have). Use the keys on the keypad to enter it.

5. Check your voicemail inbox.

Once you’re in your voicemail system, you may need to do something a little different than this tutorial, depending on your telecom provider and/or voicemail client. However, the general options you will have should be pretty similar.

Anyway, the first thing you should do is tap the button on the dial pad that will allow you to check your messages. In this case it is 1.

6. After listening to each message, decide what you want to do with it.

The most recent voicemail message you received should play. When it’s ready, you have a few choices about what you want to do with the message. Usually these include deleting the message, saving it, getting more information about it, and so on. Press the button on the keypad that corresponds to your desired action.

In this case you can press 7 to delete the message or press 9 to save it. If you want more options for using the message, press 0.

Deleting or saving the message will play the next most recent voicemail message. From there, go back to the beginning of this step.

However, if you want to listen to more options for the current message, you’ll get additional choices. This usually includes playing the message, finding out more information about the message (including when it was sent and by whom), or canceling the review of your messages and returning to your voicemail system’s main menu.

Again, just press the button on the keypad that represents the option you want. In this case you can press 4 to play the message again, 5 to hear more information about the message, or * to stop checking the messages and return to the main menu of your voicemail system. If you don’t choose this last option, return to the beginning of this step.

7. When finished, hang up to exit your voicemail system.

If you have no more messages to retrieve or have otherwise checked your voicemail, press the red end call button to exit your voicemail system and end the call.

That’s more or less how it’s done! Since options may vary by airline, we’ve put together a cheat sheet for you below. If you’re using a popular wireless service provider, you’ll need to press these keys when checking your voicemail messages.

Popular Voicemail Shortcuts for Telcos

Network operator Save message Delete message Repeat message T-Mobile Press 9 Press 7 Press 1 Verizon Press 9 Press 7 Press 4 AT&T Press 3 Press 2 Press 1 Rogers Press 9 Press 7 Enter “11 “ a Bell Press 9 Press 7 Press 4 Telus Press 9 Press 9 Press 7 Press 1 Virgin Mobile Press 3 Press 2 Press 1

That’s the basics for playing voicemails on your Android phone! Keep an eye out for our series of blog posts and articles explaining other neat tricks you can do with your Android voicemail such as: B. How to set up a good voicemail greeting. Or check out the rest of our Android calling and voicemail course to master all the details of calling on your phone and using the voicemail service!

You can record a custom greeting for your voicemail or use the default Google Voice greeting. Record up to 10 voicemail greetings and select the one you want callers to hear.

Record a new greeting

If you’re using the Google Voice app, you can record a greeting of up to 3 minutes. If you use Safari to record the greeting, it can only be one minute long. If you don’t record a new greeting, callers hear the default greeting.

To record a new greeting:

Open the Google Voice app. Tap Menu Settings in the top left. In the Voicemail section, tap Voicemail Greeting. Tap Record Greeting. Tap Recording . Record your greeting, then tap Stop . Choose what you want to do with the recording: To listen to the recording, tap Play .

To listen to the recording, tap Play . To replace the recording, tap Restore.

. To save the recording, tap Save. Enter a name for the new greeting and tap Save.

Change your greeting

To use a different greeting you’ve already recorded, or revert to the default greeting:

Open the Google Voice app. Tap Menu Settings in the top left. In the Voicemail section, tap Voicemail Greeting. Next to the greeting you want to use, tap More Set as active.

Related Articles

Important: Not all carriers or countries/regions offer this feature. Visual Voicemail is available for:

AT&T Tip: Make sure your data plan includes access to visual voicemail. You can call AT&T Customer Service to inquire, or you can check what data plan you have.

cellular

Coriolis

Google fi

O2

orange

T Mobile

If you’re using your carrier’s voicemail app, the visual voicemail feature in the phone app will be disabled to avoid potential conflicts.

Check your voicemail on iPhone

In the phone app, visual voicemail (available on select providers) displays a list of your messages. You can choose which ones to play and delete without listening to them all. A badge on the voicemail icon indicates the number of unheard messages.

Voicemail Transcription (Beta; only available in certain countries or regions) shows your messages transcribed into text. Transcription is limited to English voicemails received on your iPhone running iOS 10 or later. The transcription depends on the quality of the recording.

Note: Voicemail, Visual Voicemail, and Voicemail Transcription are available with select carriers in select countries or regions.

Set up voicemail The first time you tap Voicemail, you’ll be prompted to create a voicemail password and record your voicemail greeting. Tap Voicemail and then tap Set Up Now. Create a voicemail password. Choose a greeting – Default or Custom; If you choose Custom, you can record a new greeting.

Play, share, or delete a voicemail Siri: For example, say, “Play Eliza’s voicemail.” Learn how to ask Siri. Or do the following: Tap Voicemail, then tap a message. Do one of the following: Play the message: Tap . Messages are saved until you delete them or your wireless service provider deletes them.

Share message: Tap .

Delete message: Tap . Important: In some countries or regions, deleted messages might be permanently deleted by your wireless service provider. Your voice messages can also be deleted if you change your SIM card. To recover a deleted message, tap Deleted Messages, tap the message, then tap Recover.

Check your messages when visual voicemail is unavailable. On your iPhone: Tap on “Voicemail” and follow the instructions.

On another phone: Dial your own mobile number, press * or # (depending on carrier) to override your greeting, and then enter your voicemail password.