How do i turn off my voice mail

There's a chance you know people with a phone who seldom, maybe never, make a phone call. The smartphone handset—even dumb feature phones—support SMS texting or other options for quick communication, like iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and plenty more. Why call? There are, in fact, those who not only eschew calls, but especially hate/loathe the feature that once made us always contactable even before email: voice mail.

Phone messages are a feature that date back decades to the home answering machine, which used to be the size of a current game console. But all they could do was play 30 seconds of greeting and capture messages for playback on a cassette tape (or two, if you were lucky).

Today, voice mail is one of the most basic services offered by mobile carriers, who store your messages for you to access remotely, at practically no charge. But it's just ridiculous in most scenarios. Why would anyone leave a voice message when shooting off 160 characters can get the job done 99 percent of the time? Worse is the inevitable game of phone tag that comes when neither party can connect in real-time. The only worthwhile phone greetings are created by super-spies like Sterling Archer:

There's already evidence that the millennial set is avoiding voice mail(Opens in a new window), which is no surprise. They grew typing with their thumbs faster than any other generation can articulate words from their mouth holes.

But how do you avoid greetings when you do make the call and want to jump right to leaving a message? And how do you avoid getting any voice mail messages at all? Let us break it down for you.

Avoid Greetings

A few years ago, former New York Times columnist David Pogue went on a tear(Opens in a new window) about how the major mobile carriers gouged people out of their cellular minutes by adding a few extra seconds of instructions after people listened to voice mail greetings (and the greetings were probably already long enough). It wasn't exactly universal—Apple made AT&T take it out for iPhone users—but pretty close. The instructions were full of highly useful tidbits like "when you are finished, hang up."

The decline of email since 2009, as texting skyrocketed, means it's unlikely the carriers are extorting as many millions back from user. However, you can still take steps to bypass a greeting and the instructions that follow. Assuming you still feel the need to leave a voice mail at all.

The key is knowing the carrier used by the person you're calling. If you do, the following keys should let you go directly to the beep. Tap the following when the greeting begins:

• AT&T and T-Mobile: # (the pound or hash key)
• Sprint: 1
• Verizon Wireless: * (star key)

Hitting the wrong key when calling the wrong carrier can send you into some instructions (like hitting 1 with T-Mobile), kill your call, or bring up a prompt to sign into the call recipient's voice mail—that happens when you hit # with Verizon, or * on the rest of the big four (plus US Cellular). This is a trick best reserved for when you know a person's carrier of choice. Hit the pound key if you don't know; at least that's a 50/50 shot. You still have to listen to the rings. Sorry. Or, hey, better yet, just send a text!

An app-based option: leave a voice mail message for someone so their phone doesn't even ring! Or, it emits a quick half ring in some cases. Slydial(Opens in a new window) has apps for iPhone and Android, or anyone can use it by calling 267-SLYDIAL, even from a landline. It's free to use—if you're up for listening to the advertising that pays for the service; a pro version skips the ads. It doesn't work if you call a prepaid phone, a line with a full voice mail box, a VoIP service, a third-party voice mail service like Google Voice, or a landline.

What Slydial does not do is save you any time, since you're listening to even more blah-blah-blah before the call goes to the voice mail (though you can still use the keys above to skip those greetings). It's strictly for leaving stealth messages. It worked find in my test calls, but many of the reviews of the app online are from pissed-off people who couldn't get it to work, because they actually got connected to the person for whom they wanted to leave a voice mail. Oops.

Turning Off Voice Mail

Today we have visual voice mail options on iPhones and Android devices—where messages are accessed via the Phone app, rather than dialing into a number to access calls, which requires listening for cues to push buttons, etc. It's a lot easier, since you can generally delete a message with a tap or a swipe.

A little lifehack: call your own voice mail and play music into it for a while, until the voice mail box is full. Never delete that recording, and you'll never get any new messages. Do it a few times if messages have a cutoff time.

There's also an app for that: No More Voicemail(Opens in a new window) (NMV) for Android and iOS claims it can do away with your voice mail service, skipping the talk with the carrier. What it does is provide the code you need to set up "conditional call forwarding." Unlike regular call forwarding, where the call is shunted to a different number so your phone never rings, this is a call where your phone still rings and you can answer it. The difference with No More Voicemail's version is, if you don't answer, the caller just hears ringing that goes on forever. (Note that it only works for the big four carriers in the states, plus US Cellular, and won't work with Google Voice.) Once you want your voice mail service back, go into the app and it'll generate a new code to call.

Note that the app services like Slydial and No More Voicemail aren't foolproof. The comments in the app stores are riddled with people having issues, but in NMV's case especially they're in there answering issues and trying to help. And if you hate voice mail enough, it might be worth it.

Like What You're Reading?

Sign up for Fully Mobilized newsletter to get our top mobile tech stories delivered right to your inbox.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.