Take Back the Beep: how to disable voicemail instructions on Sprint (updated!)
By Paul Miller 
posted July 31st 2009 5:02PM
posted July 31st 2009 5:02PM
It's pretty easy:
- Call your voicemail
- At the menu, press 3 for personal options
- Press 2 for greeting
- Press 1 to change the greeting
- To enable / disable the instructions, press 3
Update: Thanks to some helpful comments we've got instructions for AT&T and Verizon for lopping off bits of the message, and, in Verizon's case, speeding up the talking. Check 'em out after the break. Consider yourselves upgraded to orange, guys!
AT&T
There's a "cut through paging" option on AT&T's voicemail, at least for certain customers. It only cuts off that small section of the voicemail instructions (the part about paging somebody), but it's all very unclear and inconsistent. AT&T has been upgraded to orange, and you're free to try these instructions at your own risk:
- Call your voicemail
- Go to personal options
- Go to administrative options
- Select "cut through paging"
- Select off
Verizon
Instructions are a little conflicting, but here's what we've gleaned from the tips. As far as we can tell, Verizon methods can vary by region, so let us know what works for you.Here's what kchinth recommends.
- Personal options
- Administrative options
- General options
- Then you will have these three options:
- Auto Play On or Off
- Call Back Number Prompt On or Off
- Rapid Prompt or Standard Prompt
T-Mobile
Crickets.
I bet AT&T are the last company to provide a way to disable this.
I'm pretty sure ATT does allow this, I definitely don't have this BS at the start of my message, just goes straight to "hi, leave a message" with my iphone. I'll try to figure out how I disabled them.
no.
verizon will be last.
same as they were with gps.
@ Ralph :: That's because Apple demanded AT&T remove the message for iPhone users.
@tyler: Careful, saying nice things about Apple is likely to get you down voted and/or flamed for being a brain dead fanboy!
This is actually easiest on ATT. Simply press # when the voicemail comes on and it skips everything.
Contrary to what your hateful northerners constantly claim ( if my iPhone were only getting 150 Kbps on 3G, I'd be hateful too), its not that bad.
How about not using your carriers voicemail and going with something way better.
www.youmail.com
or
www.callwave.com
have custom prompts for each caller, true caller ID, voicemail to text recognition sent as SMS, emailed copy of .mp3 of all voicemails, call screening, soooo much more.
I have used both, prefer callwave, but they are more expensive, youmail is free.
To sum up for AT&T
Go to voice mail and press:
4
2
3
2
then do it again and press:
4
2
7
2
Your callers will hear nothing but your message and a beep.
Your dual number steps don't work. I still get the following prompt after my message: "at the tone please record your message, when you're finished recording press 1 for more options"
The ATT one worked for me, all I hear is a my message and a beep.
@ibgone
FYI
Sprint charges 20c/min for forwarded calls
This includes all your calls, including those to YouMail.
@ibgone:
Or Google Voice. It's primary goal is for live handling of incoming and outgoing calls, but it can also be used as a voicemail-only service like callwave, if that's all you need.
Sorry to piggy back...
For Canadians...
Rogers also allows this:
Press 4 - Personal Options
Press 2 - Change Administrative Options
Press 3 - Record Prompt On/Off
“You have reached [Your name]” *Beep*
I have AT&T and it goes from my message to the beep without all the other crap.
Maybe it's because they did this for the iPhone, or all phones with visual voice mail? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Does it hurt to be as wrong as you, Bradley?
ahh i wish i had that carrier
NICE!!! Just did this Thank you Sprint
thanks for the reminder. I had this set on my last sprint phone/account, but didn't set it up yet on my new account (with the pre, old account is now the kids account).
You can also just press the number "1" to bypass the instructions on Sprint.
Score!
Although I am waiting for the first "Wait what... um.. hello? OH! Hey it's me..." message because their brain auto shuts down for 10 seconds before leaving messages.
I'm usually using that 10 seconds to formulate what the message will entail; I don't know what my messages will be like when I'm forced to jump right into the voicemail.
What really sucks is when you are trying to leave a message and the person calls you back during the message. I have discovered recently how to flash back over and delete the message since it's no longer needed. It really throws you for a loop when someone picks up their home phone just as you hear the beep and are primed to leave a message only to be confronted with 'HELLO?, uh hang on, *presses random buttons* how do I shut this thing off, wait we have to let it finish, *feedback* AAHH!!, okay I think it's done, now who is this?'
DONE
Allow me to present a way to disable pre-beep voicemail instructions in AT&T.
1. Switch to Sprint
2. Follow above instructions
Thank you.
Next week, how to get the Palm Pre for Verizon subscribers.
Next month, how to remove Verizon's fingerprints on your Palm Pre.
Hahaha how true. I had this disabled way back in the day but left Sprint for two years before realizing just what a terrible mistake that was since T-mobile's customer service devolved into the CSR literally yelling at me over the phone for their screwup.
Hadn't bothered to re-disable this until this post reminded me. Seriously, Sprint has been solid for me ever since, and if they make a mistake they've been more than willing to fix it for me.
And they don't try to neuter every phone that comes their way, seeing the way my brother's cell phone was mutilated by Verizon's horrible interface made me cry.
You win, Sir. +1
LOVE YOU SPRINT. since i got my Pre weve been best buds. Till i have a billing issue then were back to fighting.
huh? this can be done for years, im on o2 UK, i can change the messages to my own voice, remove it etc, ... mine just says 'Hello, ...' and then records, mates get a bit bored after a few minutes when they realise its voicemail, but its rather funny IMO
Agreed. This option was announced when I first set up my sprint voice mail about 7 years ago. Also, on some VM's you can just press 5 as soon as you hear the recorded message start up and skip directly to "the beep," thus making this whole thing a real non issue.
Also agreed. I did this with my sprint phone almost 6 years ago. I thought it was common knowledge...
This has been an option on Sprint's voicemail for years -- I did it back in college (over 6 years ago).
I did it back in ditch digging school (over 6.1 years ago).
yeah this has been around for a minute
This option has been around for a while!
ITS JUST TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO TURN IT OFFF!!!!! AHHHHHH
The waiting......
If you want to save your OWN minutes while checking your voicemail on Sprint, simply go into the menu system and enable EXPERT MODE. This will make the voicemail lady talk much faster and simply options. Examples:
Instead of "For caller information press 1, to delete press 7, to save press 9, to call back press pound"
you will get "Information 1, delete 7, save 9, call back pound"
Other examples are in the rest of the menu system of VM, all choices will be shortened, saving significant time over the years. Engadget, how about making this known?
Holy hell THANK YOU.
@crashcarstar
You are quite welcome. Sprint's voicemail system is by FAR the most flexible. They used to have backdoor numbers to dial into the voicemail system, but those have since been shut down. It was always the area code, followed by the sprint prefix, followed by MAIL.
So mine was (xxx)xxx-MAIL. Unfortunately, this was shut down a few years ago for almost every area code + prefix.
Done. Thanks guys!
I don't know if there's a permanent way to turn it off on ATT, but u can press 7 to bypass the message and jump directly to the beep...... i've been using this for quite some time ...
For me, the last step was actually to press 2 instead of 3.
When you get the voicemail of a Verizon phone, you can press * to skip all the crap and just record your message.
And if you have Verizon, you can turn off the "To leave a callback number, press 5" blurb this way:
- Call your voicemail and enter your password
- Press 4 - Personal Options
- Press 2 - Administrative Options
- Press 1 - General Options
- Press 7 - For Callback # Feature
- Press 2 - To turn Callback # Prompt on/off
- Press 2 - Turns Callback # Prompt OFF
ya thats password change and you need to press pound for it to work
Also, to make the roboto lady speak a bit faster, do this:
Dial *86 for Voicemail
Enter PIN
Before the system starts playing the first message, Press 4 (Personal Options)
Press 2 (Administrative Options)
Press 1 (General Options)
Press 8 (Prompt Levels)
Press 2 (Rapid Prompt)
I've already turned off the "To leave a callback number" prompt on Verizon. Thanks Alex! Is there any way to have the bitch not say anything at all after my outgoing message?
I don't think people need to hear "Please leave your message after the tone. When you're finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options."
I just want my outgoing message... and simple beep!
This is awesome!!!!! this will show if we the people can make a difference.
They're talking about when you call someone else and get sent to their voicemail. Which I always though those canned messages were removed when you set your own message(it is for me on T-Mobile) so I don't really get the point of all this.
You're absolutely right and this is all blown out of proportion.
I just set my own prompt, and my canned instructions are still there
Um, you can turn it off on ATT as well, had it off for years. Change notifications for prompt level of Cut Through Paging (and possibly also Prompt Level) in the voicemail settings. Result: "Hey I'm not here "
you can press any number while listening to a message on att.. i use 1 though..
and iphone has vvm as you all know.. what about palm pre??