Visual Voicemail: How Does It Work, And What Are The Benefits?

visual voicemail
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Visual voicemail is a tool that lets you select which voicemails to replay, erase, arrange, or respond to through text or phone call. It displays a list of your voicemails in an email-like interface, complete with caller ID, phone number, duration, date, and time. It includes a dashboard for handling incoming voicemails, which leads to better productivity. Continue reading to learn how a visual voicemail works, including its benefits and how you can troubleshoot if it isn’t working on your phone. 

How Does The Visual Voicemail Work?

When a caller leaves a basic audio message, it appears on the visual voicemail dashboard, where all messages are stored in a single list. Rather than phoning a number and listening to voicemails in order, use the visual voicemail app and tap any message. The app displays all relevant message information, such as the contact number, duration, date, and time.

Users of visual voicemail apps can listen to or read the message. The user will then be able to choose whether to delete the message, save the voicemail, or select other options from the same screen. Messages can be responded to via text or phone call, or voicemails can be forwarded to your email or another recipient, depending on your business phone provider.

Features Of Visual Voicemail

Visual voicemail systems include a few unique capabilities, like the ability to transcribe audio messages to text and design your voicemail greeting. Here’s everything you’ll need to look for in a dependable visual voicemail system.

#1. Voicemail Transcription 

Voicemail transcription is a prominent feature of visual voicemail in which the audio content of voicemails is transcribed into legible text. It becomes a time-saving tool, providing users with a sense of what the voicemail contains without requiring them to listen to it and decide what action to take. This saves time when you’re on the road and need to check voicemail quickly—on either iOS or Android devices.

#2. Voicemail-to-email or text-to-email

Several phone companies allow you to share voicemail information with others by emailing or texting the transcribed voicemail. This allows you to send voicemails directly to your email or to teammates who need to be kept up to date. It also allows you to send the voicemail as an attachment so that others can listen to your message.

#3. Voicemail Greetings

Custom greetings are another important feature of visual voicemail systems. People customize their voicemail greetings to provide the appropriate tone for receiving a call. Several firms provide a variety of professional greeting alternatives to help you achieve the desired experience.

The Benefits of Visual Voicemail

Visual voicemail allows you to handle all of your audio messages in one location rather than going through them one by one. Here are some of the benefits of including visual voicemail in your communications stack:

#1. Rapid Message Retrieval

Consider the standard voicemail experience: It takes time to login in, listen to messages, and then extract key information from what may often be a difficult-to-understand voice recording. That is not the case with Visual Voicemail, and the streamlined experience can really save you time and increase your productivity significantly.

You won’t have to dial in to listen to your messages with Visible Voicemail. Because your company voicemail provider has already transcribed your messages, you’ll spend no time listening and taking notes. All that remains is for you to read it, just like you would a text message, email, or other kinds of visual communication.

Furthermore, you will no longer have to search for certain messages. Rather than listening to every voicemail in your mailbox until you discover the proper one, a quick visual scan will help you to pinpoint the message you require with less effort. These aspects of Visible Voicemail, when combined, ensure that you can get to (and through) your messages more rapidly.

#2. Enhanced Productivity

A visual overview of your messages allows you to evaluate what is most important and prioritize what needs to be addressed first. You’ll notice that you’re replying more quickly, and voicemails will feel less burdensome as a result.

Furthermore, because of its enhanced speed, Visual Voicemail provides additional productivity benefits. With the capacity to retrieve voicemail more quickly, you can answer more quickly, which has several possible benefits:

In circumstances where a voicemail offers critical business information, you can seize the opportunity or solve a company matter more swiftly.

When a consumer leaves a voicemail, you’ll be able to respond to them more quickly, which will improve their happiness.

When a prospective customer or lead leaves a voicemail, having fast voicemail access allows you to answer before they lose interest in setting up a meeting or completing a transaction.

In general, the faster you can respond to different situations, the better your outcomes. Visible Voicemail provides instant access to vital information, allowing you to get more done in less time.

#3. Simpler Access

To listen to your messages on some classic voicemail systems, you must have access to the audio hardware of your business desk phone. Even with systems that allow you to recover your voice messages on the move, the audio component limits your ability to access your voicemail. Listening to an audio message may cause disturbance or be impractical in many settings.

This is not the case with Visual Voicemail, which easily handles both of these concerns. Visual Voicemail allows you to access messages from outside your workstation on any digital device. Transcribed voice messages can be saved to a remote hub or forwarded directly to your mailbox, where you can access them instantly.

Visual Voicemail is a vital tool for remote employees and distributed teams since it allows them to access voice messages from any device, independent of physical location. Its adaptability enables you to conduct business uninterrupted in instances where certain team members (or the entire team) must operate offsite.

When listening to a message isn’t an option, reading a transcribed message is usually sufficient, so you won’t be left in the dark. Visible Voicemail provides increased flexibility and helps you to stay up to current on critical information whether you’re out and about in noisy environments or situations where you need to multitask.

#4. Increased Privacy

Unless you listen to all of your messages through headphones, there’s a chance they’ll be picked up by eavesdropping ears.

You can view your messages in text format after they’ve been transcribed, eliminating the need to dial in to hear who called and what they called about. As a result, you reduce the possibility of others hearing potentially sensitive information.

#5. Easy sharing and forwarding

It can be time-consuming to forward a message to someone else’s voicemail. Attempting to download and send an attachment can be technically challenging.

To get around this, many people will listen to a message, take notes on essential topics, and then distribute those notes to everyone who requires the information. It’s a cumbersome process that frequently leads to confusion due to how easy it is to get specifics wrong while transmitting that information.

This is not the case with a transcribed voicemail, which may be easily emailed to another receiver. This improves clarity by reducing the need to “dial” information and allowing others to read the complete message. It also makes it simple to communicate information with several people at once.

Furthermore, being in text form makes it simple to transmit a specific message to colleagues if you receive a call intended for them.

#6. Improved Recordkeeping

Keeping track of traditional voicemail messages is a difficult task. Visual Voicemail, on the other hand, provides you with a simple and easy-to-use recordkeeping tool. If your Visual Voicemail messages are emailed to you, it’s a simple matter to save them in a folder (or several files) and maintain a thorough archive.

You can also download transcriptions and audio files to your preferred device and begin compiling a record of your voicemail messages that way. Whatever technique you choose for recordkeeping, Visual Voicemail makes it simple to get started.

How to Turn On Visual Voicemail on Your Phone

One of the first steps in configuring your new phone is to enable Visual Voicemail. The Visual Voicemail feature on the phone lets you define a preset welcome or modify the greeting that callers hear when their calls are routed to voice mail. If you already have voice mail on your account, the Visual Voice Mail setup is activated. If you have a new account, you can activate Visual Voice Mail from your device. Follow the steps below to turn on Visual Voicemail on your phone.

  1. On the home screen, tap the “Phone” icon.
  2. Open the Voicemail Setting screen by tapping the “Voicemail” icon in the bottom taskbar.
  3. Choose the “Set Up Now” option. The screen Password appears.
  4. Tap “Save” after entering a password for your Visual Voice Mail. The screen Password Confirmation appears.
  5. Retype the password in the input box to confirm it. Choose “Save.” The Welcome screen appears.
  6. Choose “Default” to use the default greeting, or “Custom” to record a personalized greeting for callers. When you select “Custom,” the Recording screen appears.
  7. Use the “Record” button to record your personal greeting. To stop recording, use the “Stop” button. Touch “Play” to listen to the recording again, or “Record” to re-record the greeting. When you’re finished recording, tap the “Save” button. The Voicemail screen shows an entry for your greeting, and it is enabled. Visible Voice Mail has been enabled.

Visual Voicemail Not Working? How To Troubleshoot

As with any technology, visual voicemail may not always function properly. If your visual voicemail isn’t working, here are fast fixes to get it back up and running.

#1. Check your cellular coverage.

If visual voicemail has only lately begun to malfunction, or if it does not appear to work properly in specific regions, ensure sure you have a strong, dependable cellular signal. Visual voicemail will not function properly without a wireless connection. Check the signal strength bars in the status bar at the top of your phone screen, and if it doesn’t work, try toggling the Airplane mode on and off to reset the cellular connection. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the Control Center or quick shortcuts on your phone, and then press the Airplane mode button. Wait a few seconds before tapping it again.

#2. Dial voicemail the old-fashioned way.

Is your issue limited to visual voicemail, or is it more widespread? Try contacting your voicemail manually to discover if there is a problem with your voicemail service. Often, you can do this by dialing your own mobile phone number and then entering your PIN to view messages. If you are unable to access your voicemail, please contact your service provider.

#3. Check that you have enough free memory.

If you have very little free memory on your smartphone, your visual voicemail may have issues – or perhaps cease working entirely. If your phone is completely out of space, visual voicemail will stop saving or playing back messages properly.

T-Mobile, for example, recommended that your phone have at least 15% free RAM for visual voicemail to function effectively. If in doubt, you can clear some space on your iPhone or your Android smartphone.

#4. Examine your call forwarding options.

If fresh messages aren’t arriving in your visual voicemail list, it’s conceivable that you have call forwarding enabled and incoming calls are being routed rather of going to voicemail. If this is the case, you should disable call forwarding so that your phone can collect voicemails again. The specific technique varies on your phone and your cellular carrier – here’s how to change call forwarding on an iPhone and here’s how to change call forwarding on an Android.

#5. Reboot your phone.

It’s also conceivable that your visual voicemail is glitching due to a transient software glitch, which can be easily resolved by resetting your phone. Restart your phone if you’ve tried everything else on this list and your visual voicemail is still not working properly.

#6. Update your app.

While this is unlikely to be the cause of your issues, a bug or program incompatibility could be preventing your visual voicemail from working properly. On the iPhone, make sure the Phone app is properly updated. If you have an Android phone, make sure the Phone app is up to date, but you may also have a standalone visual voicemail app that needs to be updated.

#7. Reset your network configuration.

Last but not least, if visual voicemail continues to fail, restarting your phone’s network settings may resolve the issue. Sadly, doing so will wipe out all of your network settings, including any saved Wi-Fi network passwords and linked Bluetooth devices, so keep it for last.

What Is the Difference Between Voicemail and Visual Voicemail?

Voicemail, sometimes known as Voicemail 901, is your device’s answerphone service. It is the fundamental service that all plan.com clients have access to as soon as they log in. Messages are recorded, and the user gets notified by text message when one is left. The user has no influence over the order in which messages are replayed.

Visual Voicemail is a device-specific application that adds functionality to Voicemail, most notably the display of message data on the screen, similar to an email inbox. Messages that the user wishes to listen to or ignore can be selected at any moment. If the message is from one of the user’s contacts, the contact’s stored name is displayed alongside the message.

The primary advantage of Visual Voicemail over regular Voicemail is that it is significantly more controllable.

How Do I Call Voicemail On My Phone?

Try *86, *98, or press and hold 1. Also, try dialing 1. Any of these should open voicemail.

Do Android Phones Have Visual Voicemail?

Android phones have a built-in visual voicemail service that lets you view voicemail messages in text form. 

In Conclusion

Visual voicemail is a telephone service that allows you to access incoming voicemails via a user-friendly visual interface. Visual voicemail provides the flexibility you need to carry on business conversations without interruption, thanks to greater productivity and simpler access and shareability.

References

  1. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND 2023 Guide (+ Free Tips)
  2. PROFESSIONAL ANSWERING SERVICES: The Best Options in 2023
  3. PHONE SYSTEMS: 11+ Phone Systems for any Business & All You Need
  4. VIRTUAL PHONE SYSTEMS: The Top Best Virtual Phone Systems For any Business (+ Detailed Guide)
  5. VIRTUAL PHONE SERVICES: The Best Virtual Phone Services For Small Businesses, Updated!!!

References

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