How to set up and check voicemail on Android

2 min read · 6 steps · Updated 2 October 2026

Short answer

Open the Phone app, tap Dialpad and touch and hold the 1 key to call your voicemail. The first time, a recorded voice guides you through choosing a PIN and a greeting. If your network supports it, switch on Visual voicemail under the three dots, Settings, Voicemail.

Voicemail is run by your mobile network, not by the phone. The Phone app only gives you a quick way to call it and, with some networks, a list of your messages on the screen.

Menu names below are from Google Pixel phones on a recent Android version. Samsung, Xiaomi and other brands rename some of them. The pictures are simplified diagrams of the screen, not screenshots.

Step by step

  1. Open the Phone app and tap Dialpad

    Dialpad is at the bottom of the screen.

  2. Touch and hold 1

    The phone calls your voicemail box. If nothing happens, the voicemail number is missing. Ask your network for it.

  3. Follow the spoken instructions

    On the first call, the system asks you to choose a PIN and to record your name or a greeting. Write the PIN down.

  4. Listen to messages

    Call the voicemail again in the same way. The voice tells you which key deletes a message and which saves it.

  5. VoicemailVisual voicemailVoicemail transcriptionNotificationsAdvanced settings

    Turn on visual voicemail

    In the Phone app, tap the three dots, then Settings, then Voicemail, and switch on Visual voicemail. Your messages then appear in a Voicemail tab at the bottom of the Phone app, and you can play them in any order.

  6. Check the notification settings

    In the same menu, tap Notifications to choose the sound and vibration for new voicemails.

Good to know

Visual voicemail is not offered by every network or in every country. If the switch is missing, your network does not support it in the Phone app, and you use the call to 1.

Voicemail transcription, which writes the message out as text, is available with some networks only, and in English and Spanish.

Abroad, listening to voicemail can be charged as a call home. Ask your network before a trip.

To send callers to voicemail or another number on purpose: how to set up call forwarding on Android.

In short: Phone app, Dialpad, hold 1, set a PIN and greeting. Visual voicemail: three dots, Settings, Voicemail.

Sources
  • Phone app Help: How to check your voicemail

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