How To Turn On Voicemail Transcription On Iphone

You don't need to turn on voicemail transcription on your iPhone — it'll be turned on automatically as long as your phone carrier allows it, and you have an iPhone 6s or later.
You can find your voicemail transcriptions by tapping on one of your recent voicemails in the iPhone's Phone app.
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If you can't answer a phone call, chances are you don't have time to immediately listen to a voicemail either.

Luckily, if you're stuck in a meeting or library without headphones, you can read your voicemail transcriptions on an iPhone 6s or later to get the message.

After your iPhone transcribes a voicemail message, you can save the voicemail text and even send it via AirDrop, iMessage, or Mail. Before doing so, you'll want to verify that your carrier provides voicemail transcriptions.

Here's how to check.

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How to make sure your iPhone's carrier provides voicemail transcription

Most major carriers provide voicemail transcriptions. However, to double check, you can check out this list, which lists every major carrier and what iPhone features they provide.

In addition to other features such as Wi-Fi calling , Personal Hotspot, and FaceTime over Cellular, you may see "Visual Voicemail" listed as an option. If this is the case, you can use voicemail transcriptions in the Phone app on your iPhone.

It's also worth noting that transcriptions were first made available for the iOS 10 update in 2016, and are only available for iPhone users with an iPhone 6s or later.

How to use voicemail transcription in the Phone app

1. Open your Phone app.

2. Tap on the "Voicemail" tab at the bottom of the screen.

3. Tap on any recent voicemail to transcribe it. If it's the first time you're listening to a message, the app may show "Transcribing Voicemail..." while it loads.

Your phone will need to take a moment to listen to the voicemail as well.

4. The transcription will soon be made available and should immediately appear after tapping on it from now on. There may be some blanks (indicated as "____") in the text if the caller's voice is muffled or unclear.

The transcription might not be fully accurate, especially when it comes to names.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

How to delete all the voicemail on your iPhone at once, or export them to save storage space
How to reset and change your voicemail password on an iPhone without calling your voicemail
How to save voicemails from your iPhone and share them in a variety of ways
How to set up a custom voicemail greeting on your iPhone
How to set up a custom voicemail greeting on a Samsung Galaxy S10, in 2 different ways

Marissa Perino is a former editorial intern covering executive lifestyle. She previously worked at Cold Lips in London and Creative Nonfiction in Pittsburgh. She studied journalism and communications at the University of Pittsburgh, along with creative writing. Find her on Twitter: @mlperino.