How to Turn Off Voicemail

Hate receiving voicemails? Get rid of them for good

by
Molly McLaughlin
Molly McLaughlin
Senior Content Strategist
Molly K. McLaughlin has been a technology writer since 2004. Her work has appeared on many tech sites across the web including PCMag, Dealnews, Wirecutter and many others.
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Molly McLaughlin
Updated on July 21, 2021
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Michael Heine headshot
Michael Barton Heine Jr
Lifewire Technology Review Board Member
Michael Heine is a CompTIA-certified writer, editor, and Network Engineer with 25+ years' experience working in the television, defense, ISP, telecommunications, and education industries.
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Article reviewed on Dec 04, 2020
Michael Barton Heine Jr

There are a few ways to turn off voicemail. Depending on your phone, you may be able to use a carrier code, adjust your phone settings, or use a third-party app. There are also less techy options that do the trick. Here are four methods to disable voicemails, or at least limit voicemail messages.

How to Disable Voicemail on Android 

If you have an Android phone, you might be able to disable voicemail by adjusting your call-forwarding settings. You can disable three functions, such as Forward When Busy, Forward When Unanswered, and Forward When Unreached. In some cases, you can disable all call forwarding.

  1. Check if you have call forwarding. Open the Phone app, select the Menu icon, then choose Settings.

  2. Scroll through the settings and select Call-forwarding if it's an option.

    You may have to open Advanced or More Settings to find this.

    Voicemail settings

  3. Disable all call-forwarding functions. Your phone should stop forwarding calls to your voicemail provider. 

Your options might not match exactly, and not all Android smartphones have this setting.

How to Use Carrier Codes to Remove Voicemail

Your carrier may be able to help disable voicemail. You can also use a carrier code to call customer service or call the helpline directly to talk to a representative. Dial 611 from your smartphone if you use AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon in the U.S. You should be able to talk to someone who can shut off your voicemail while you're on the line.

Fill Your Mailbox

One surefire way to kick voicemail to the curb is by filling up your mailbox. When you reject or miss a call, a greeting tells the caller that the mailbox is full, and they won't be able to leave a message.

Here are a few ways to stuff your mailbox:

  • Never delete your voicemail messages and wait for it to fill up.
  • Call your phone, wait for the beep, and play music into the speaker. You might have to record a few messages if voicemails have a cutoff time, but once you do, you can't receive new messages.
  • Change your greeting to say that nobody is checking the mailbox and that they should send a text or email instead of leaving a message.

Turn Voicemail into Text

Voicemail isn't going anywhere in the short term, but you can take the voice part out of it by using visual voicemail, which transcribes your messages. Mobile carriers offer paid options, but Google Voice does it for free.

To use Google Voice, forward your calls to a Google Voice number, which is also free. When you get a voicemail, Google transcribes it and texts or emails it to you.

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