Visual Voicemail FAQs

Basic Visual Voicemail shows a list of your voicemails. You can choose which to play, delete or reply to with a call or text. Premium Visual Voicemail and Voicemail to Text for iPhone transcribe the first 45 seconds of your voicemails so you can read them.

See our Voicemail Comparison Chart and device help articles for details.

iPhone has built-in Visual Voicemail. Refer to Apple's Visual Voicemail help page.

Note: All Verizon mobile phones still have basic (audio) voicemail. You can always dial *86 from your mobile device to hear and manage voicemails.

Here's what Visual Voicemail costs:

• Basic Visual Voicemail is free and included with your smartphone plan. Not available for Android™ devices on prepaid accounts.
• Premium Visual Voicemail lets you read your voicemails for $2.99/line per month on Android/Windows phones. Not available on prepaid accounts.
• Voicemail to Text for iPhone delivers your voicemails as text messages for $2.99/ line per month.

If you have multiple phones on your account, choose the best voicemail service for each line in My Verizon.

Note: Depending on your plan, you may incur additional data charges with Visual Voicemail. Download and use will be billed on a per-megabyte basis, or according to any data package you have. Mobile to mobile minutes do not apply. Standard rates apply to any calls, emails or messages initiated from Visual Voicemail.

See the Voicemail Comparison chart to compare the features of each voicemail service. Visual Voicemail options are different for iPhone than for Android/Windows/BlackBerry phones.

Visual Voicemail is supported on all Verizon-bought smartphones and select basic phones on standard accounts*. On iPhone, Visual Voicemail is built into the Phone app. Android/Windows phones have a separate Visual Voicemail app.

On prepaid accounts, Visual Voicemail is only available for iPhone, not on Android devices.

*Not all non-Verizon devices support Visual Voicemail.

Basic Visual Voicemail is included on all standard monthly accounts and for iPhones on Prepaid accounts.*

• On iPhone, find all Voicemail on the bottom right in the Phone app.
• Android phones include a Visual Voicemail app that's not removable, even if you choose not to use the included basic service.

You can upgrade to Premium Visual Voicemail (Android) or Voicemail to Text (iPhone) by managing Services & perks in My Verizon.

If you don't have a Voicemail app on your phone, you may not be eligible to subscribe at this time.

*Browse our Prepaid support articles to learn about managing a Prepaid account.

When you order a new Android device or upgrade to one, you get Premium Visual Voicemail for 30-days, at no additional cost. Premium Visual Voicemail is not available on iPhone.

After you activate your new Android device, you'll get a message in your Voicemail app explaining your free trial has begun. During this time, you can use all the features of Premium Visual Voicemail. After 30 days, we'll let you know when your free trial has ended and give you the option to subscribe to Premium Visual Voicemail for $2.99/month.

Note: If you need to cancel your free trial before 30-days have passed, contact us. Keep in mind, when the free trial ends, we will not automatically start billing you for the next month.

To set up Visual Voicemail:

iPhone: Open the Phone app, choose Voicemail and Set Up Now. If you are switching to an iPhone and already had voicemail set up on your line, you may be directed to the automated voicemail system. You can also dial *86 to complete set up.

Note: Voicemail messages received when an iPhone's Live Voicemail is active aren't saved on Verizon's system and aren't available by calling *86.

Android: Open the Voicemail app and follow the prompts. On new devices the app icon may appear green.

If you're asked for your voicemail password, see Do I need a password to use Visual Voicemail?

When you upgrade to Visual Voicemail, all existing messages will be available in your Visual Voicemail inbox.

When you change from Visual Voicemail back to Basic Voicemail, your (audio) messages stay in your voice mailbox. Your standard greetings will be saved, but you may lose your custom greetings or other features not supported by your new mailbox type. See the Voicemail Comparison Chart for the features of each type of service.

Note: On iPhone the Visual Voicemail function is built into the Phone app and cannot be removed. However, you can always dial *86 if you want to listen to, rather than see, your voicemail.

You can unsubscribe from most Visual Voicemail services:

• On iPhone, you can't remove Basic Visual Voicemail service. You can unsubscribe from the premium service, Voicemail to Text for iPhone by visiting your Services & perks page in My Verizon.
• On Android, you can unsubscribe from Visual Voicemail service, but the app is not removable. Unsubscribe from Visual Voicemail by visiting your Services & perks page in My Verizon.

Important: All your messages should remain in your voice mailbox after you cancel, but you may lose custom greetings you created. Consider saving important messages to your device so you have a backup.

See help articles for your device to learn more about managing services and settings.

To use Visual Voicemail on your iPhone, open the Phone app and choose Voicemail to view a list of your voicemails. You can play, delete and manage them in any order. You may see a transcription of the first 45 seconds of each message. Visit Apple's Voicemail help for more information.

To use Visual Voicemail on your Android phone, open the Visual Voicemail app to view a list of your voicemails. You can play, delete and manage them in any order. If you would like to be able to read a transcription of each message on Android, subscribe to Premium Visual Voicemail.

The privacy of customer information is important to us, including the voicemail services we offer. That's one of the reasons you always need a password to access a Verizon mobile voicemail account. If you already have basic (audio) voicemail, Visual Voicemail will use that same password.

If you're setting up voicemail on a line for the first time, or if you've forgotten your voicemail password, see I forgot my Visual Voicemail password. What should I do?

Yes, in most cases the Visual Voicemail inbox on your device and your voice mailbox on our network will be synchronized, because Visual Voicemail simply displays what is in your audio voicemail box.

However, on Android devices, Visual Voicemail doesn't work if Wi-Fi is the only connection available. If Verizon data coverage isn't available, updates you make on your device offline (e.g., erase messages) may not update on your basic voicemail mailbox until data coverage becomes available (and vice versa).

To change your voicemail greeting:

• You can change your greeting from the Voicemail app on your mobile device.
• Change your greeting by dialing *86 from your mobile phone and following the prompts. You may want to print or save this *86 Menu Tree (PDF*).
• Change your voicemail greeting from any phone by calling your mobile number, press # as soon as you hear your greeting, enter your password, press 4 for Personal Options and follow the prompts.

You can save important voicemails to your device or send to email for storage.

• On iPhone the Share feature in the Voicemail section of the Phone app lets you save or share your voicemails.
• On Android phones, how you save voicemails varies by device. Visit help articles for your device for instructions.

Learn more about archiving your voicemail.

If you forgot your Visual Voicemail password you can:

• Reset your voicemail password by signing in to My Verizon. Select your device and scroll down to Setting & Preferences to find Manage voicemail password.
• Reset your voicemail password by dialing *611 from your mobile phone.

The Visual Voicemail app on Android devices doesn't work on Wi-Fi. It requires the mobile data network. Make sure Cellular Data is turned on in your device settings and that you have a network connection.

If you can't access the Verizon network, you can still play and manage your (audio only) voicemail messages by phone:

• From your mobile phone, call *86 to reach your voicemail.
• From any other phone, call your own mobile number. When you hear your greeting, press # and follow the prompts.

You can fix Visual Voicemail a few ways:

• Visual Voicemail works differently on different devices.* Go to Device Troubleshooting, select your device and search "voicemail".
• See the top reasons why Visual Voicemail isn't working, and how to fix them, in our Troubleshooting Visual Voicemail video.
• If you're having trouble with Visual Voicemail even though you're connected to the Verizon mobile data network you can try:
  1. Turning your phone off and on. This often fixes temporary issues.
  2. Resetting the Voicemail app (Android and Windows phones only). This won't delete voicemail messages; it just resets the app.
     1. Locate the Visual Voicemail app. On most phones this will be under Settings > Apps > Visual Voicemail.
     2. Select the app, and in the app's settings, tap Force Stop, then Storage > Clear Data.
     3. After you've confirmed these changes, close and reopen the Visual Voicemail app.
     4. Follow the prompts and test to make sure that your issue is fixed.
• Make sure Call Forwarding isn't active on your device. See How do I stop forwarding calls?

*Prepaid: Sign into your Prepaid account then select your device.

When you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you may get one of these error messages when the VPN is on:

• Visual Voicemail has encountered an error
• Visual Voicemail not working at the moment

To resolve either error, you can:

1. Turn off the VPN and reopen the Visual Voicemail app to see if the visual voicemail works.
2. Check if your VPN provider has an option that ignores apps like Visual Voicemail.

If this doesn't correct the issue, see Visual Voicemail isn't working. How can I fix it?

Visual Voicemail for iPhone uses Wi-Fi when you don't have access to our mobile data network.

For Android devices, Visual Voicemail requires a mobile data connection and:

• Visual Voicemail for Android doesn't work on Wi-Fi.
• If you manage messages in the app when it isn't connected to the mobile network, your changes may not take effect.
• When you return to a data coverage area, the Visual Voicemail app will work.

Note: You can always retrieve your voicemail messages by phone:

• From your mobile phone, call *86 reach your voicemail.
  • Note: Voicemail messages received when an iPhone's Live Voicemail is active aren't saved on Verizon's system and aren't available by calling *86.
• From any other phone, call your own mobile number. When you hear your greeting, press # and follow the prompts to reach your voicemail.