Nexus 4 Voicemail

**sonicresidue** · 12-06-2012, 09:05 PM

I've searched for this and have not found a clear answer.

I'm wondering how voice mail works on the N4. Do you have to call in and go through a system of menus to access voice mail? OR does it allow you to pull up a list of your messages, and play through them in any order? This is what I consider to be "visual voice mail" like you see on the iPhone. Does the N4 have this or is there an app that can allow voice mail to function in this way?

Note that many people consider "visual voice mail" to be something that transcribes the voice mail in to text (e.g. Google Voice) or shows you a picture of the person who left a message. I am not looking for this, I'm just interested in being able to access voice mail similar to how I currently do on the iPhone.

If it is carrier dependent, or makes any difference, I am currently with AT&T but will be trying T-Mobile prepaid when my phone arrives.

Thanks!

**Citizen Coyote** · 12-06-2012, 09:23 PM

Stock Android doesn't include a visual voicemail app, but there are plenty of them available for download. As for simply checking voicemail, you can just dial the 1 key on the dial pad to access it if you don't have a new voice mail notification.

**andr0idralphie** · 12-06-2012, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by sonicresidue

...I am currently with AT&T but will be trying T-Mobile prepaid when my phone arrives.

Thanks!

Oh, T-Mobile? Press and hold 1.

**sonicresidue** · 12-07-2012, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Citizen Coyote

Stock Android doesn't include a visual voicemail app, but there are plenty of them available for download. As for simply checking voicemail, you can just dial the 1 key on the dial pad to access it if you don't have a new voice mail notification.

Good to know. The idea of dialing into voicemail and having to choose from a menus ("Press 1 to hear new messages, press 2 to change your greeting......") seems ridiculously antiquated. Took a quick look at the play store yesterday and noticed T-Mobile has a visual voice mail app, and there are a couple other options.

**Citizen Coyote** · 12-07-2012, 11:18 AM

Yeah, I just downloaded the T-Mobile app as well. Seems to work fine.

**cynicist** · 12-08-2012, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by sonicresidue

Note that many people consider "visual voice mail" to be something that transcribes the voice mail in to text (e.g. Google Voice) or shows you a picture of the person who left a message. I am not looking for this, I'm just interested in being able to access voice mail similar to how I currently do on the iPhone.

Actually Google Voice is also a visual voice mail solution. Besides being able to transcribe voice mail it also allows you to look through them in a list and choose which ones to play back. It's actually rather slick, considering that it can integrate with the native dialer so you don't need to run the Google Voice app in order to look at them. (It shows icons to indicate voicemail/playback on recent calls only if a message is left)

Edit: Decided I may as well attach a screenshot.

**sonicresidue** · 12-09-2012, 03:34 PM

I was under the impression that Google Voice is a VOIP type service, and it assigns you a phone number. If I don't have to deal with separate phone numbers I may look into this for a voice mail solution. Thanks!

**regression** · 12-09-2012, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by sonicresidue

I was under the impression that Google Voice is a VOIP type service, and it assigns you a phone number. If I don't have to deal with separate phone numbers I may look into this for a voice mail solution. Thanks!

No, Google Voice is not a VOIP service. It is a call forwarding service. You can have Google Voice handle your voice mail to your cell phone. However, for that to work, your carrier must support conditional call forwarding. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think most, if not all, pre-paid plans do not include conditional call forwarding. If you are post paid you should be good to go.

**Jax Tiger** · 12-09-2012, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by djs71a

No, Google Voice is not a VOIP service. It is a call forwarding service. You can have Google Voice handle your voice mail to your cell phone. However, for that to work, your carrier must support conditional call forwarding. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think most, if not all, pre-paid plans do not include conditional call forwarding. If you are post paid you should be good to go.

I use Google Voice with my T-mobile account. I just go into my phone settings and under Voicemail Service I have two options: "My Carrier" or "Google Voice". I check Google Voice and because my phone recognizes my Google account, it just works. It also forwards the voice mail messages to my Gmail account, so I can access them there, too. I think the Google Voice solution is the best solution I've seen.

One thing I like is there is an option on Google Voice to display messages in the phone call log. I don't like that because it clutters up the phone call log. I can see who called, but when you see the transcribed message, it clutters up the call log. By unchecking this, you can check your voice mails by opening touching the Google Voice icon. This shows you just your messages, without mixing them with your inbound/outbound/missed calls log.

**regression** · 12-09-2012, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by Jax Tiger

I use Google Voice with my T-mobile account. I just go into my phone settings and under Voicemail Service I have two options: "My Carrier" or "Google Voice". I check Google Voice and because my phone recognizes my Google account, it just works. It also forwards the voice mail messages to my Gmail account, so I can access them there, too. I think the Google Voice solution is the best solution I've seen.

One thing I like is there is an option on Google Voice to display messages in the phone call log. I don't like that because it clutters up the phone call log. I can see who called, but when you see the transcribed message, it clutters up the call log. By unchecking this, you can check your voice mails by opening touching the Google Voice icon. This shows you just your messages, without mixing them with your inbound/outbound/missed calls log.

Are you on a prepaid plan?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

**dobiegillis** · 12-09-2012, 08:19 PM

As others have pointed out you can either use Google Voice or the T Mobile visual voicemail app instead of dialing into voicemail the old school way. Having used both I actually prefer old school.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

**sonicresidue** · 12-09-2012, 08:50 PM

If you use Google Voice, do you still have the option of dialing into your voice mail? Also, if you choose to stop using it, does it need to be disabled so it doesnt intercept your voice mail?

**Jax Tiger** · 12-09-2012, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by sonicresidue

If you use Google Voice, do you still have the option of dialing into your voice mail? Also, if you choose to stop using it, does it need to be disabled so it doesnt intercept your voice mail?

I am on the T-mobile value plan. With google voice, you can read the transcribed voice mail, or just click play and listen to it just like you would with dialing in. I don't like dialing in, and I like reading the transcriptions and choosing which ones I want to listen to. The "old school" method of dialing in means I have to listen to all of my voice mails.

**Pre-dawn raid** · 12-10-2012, 06:11 AM

Can anyone confirm if this Google voice option works on ATT straight talk prepaid?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

**rclifton** · 12-10-2012, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Pre-dawn raid

Can anyone confirm if this Google voice option works on ATT straight talk prepaid?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

Using Google Voice as a voicemail service requires that your carrier supports conditional call forwarding... You'll need to search to see if straight talk supports it or not.

**buntafujiwara** · 12-15-2012, 01:43 AM

I am on AT&T and I noticed that there was no voicemail indicator for me and I could not figure out how to get it going.

I ended up using the google voice option and now I have a voicemail indicator and I can play my voicemail from the call log. This is as close as I could get to what I was used to when I had my iPhone.

**donm527** · 12-15-2012, 08:20 AM

hmm... i'm gonna have to work on this...

I created a google voice number and then chose to activate the google voicemail for my mobile phone.
It told me i had to dial *0041330xxxxxxx# and I got the error message
"call forwarding problem or invalid MMI code"

Originally Posted by buntafujiwara

I am on AT&T and I noticed that there was no voicemail indicator for me and I could not figure out how to get it going.

I ended up using the google voice option and now I have a voicemail indicator and I can play my voicemail from the call log. This is as close as I could get to what I was used to when I had my iPhone.

**RickInHouston** · 12-15-2012, 08:29 AM

I think you need to disable the google voice app on your phone until you have activatd the phone with the phone number they tell you to input. That's what happened with me, anyway.

You can use your phone number for people to call (google lite) or people will need to start calling your google number (full google voice services).

It can be confusing, but once set up works great.

**donm527** · 12-15-2012, 08:55 AM

Actually I just checked my phone and I dont even have the app installed yet so nothing to disable. thanks for the suggestion though. i'll install it and try to see if enabling then disabling helps?

Originally Posted by RickInHouston

I think you need to disable the google voice app on your phone until you have activatd the phone with the phone number they tell you to input. That's what happened with me, anyway.

You can use your phone number for people to call (google lite) or people will need to start calling your google number (full google voice services).

It can be confusing, but once set up works great.

**kmcochran** · 12-15-2012, 09:39 AM

Here's how I got it working on my phone with ST-ATT. Activate your phone thru google voice online like you did (even though the forwarding didn't work). Then install the google voice app from the Play Store. The app will actually turn on the forwarding on your phone. When you go thru the steps for setting up the app, you have to make sure to change the voicemail provider to GV from carrier, then the code from google works perfectly. If for some reason the forwarding code doesn't work, you can try using **004* (two stars at the beginning instead of one star) then your gv number then # and it should work.

**gone down south** · 12-15-2012, 10:36 AM

AT&T visual voicemail had been down for almost a week, it may be a problem on their end not yours.

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**donm527** · 12-15-2012, 02:16 PM

Thanks. I did as mentioned and that Google Voice app seemed to setup with no problem. And for good measure I did the *004* call forwarding anyways (with only one * in the beginning... I missed the part you said two **) and it said it forwarded successfully. But haven't had anyone call me to finish testing. Will update the results. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by kmcochran

Here's how I got it working on my phone with ST-ATT. Activate your phone thru google voice online like you did (even though the forwarding didn't work). Then install the google voice app from the Play Store. The app will actually turn on the forwarding on your phone. When you go thru the steps for setting up the app, you have to make sure to change the voicemail provider to GV from carrier, then the code from google works perfectly. If for some reason the forwarding code doesn't work, you can try using **004* (two stars at the beginning instead of one star) then your gv number then # and it should work.