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.
In Verizon you can go into Admin Options and turn on Rapid Prompt which shortens what the woman says by a bit....
To set up rapid prompts on AT&T when checking your voice mail:
4
2
3
2
This is correct, I was going to post the same thing.
4 does 'preferences', 2 does 'administrative options', 3 does 'change prompts', 2 does 'rapid prompt' (which is just your recorded message) then the beep.
Right, all you get after that is the recorded greeting, then "to page this person, press 5" a pause, and then the tone
If you do this and
4
2
7
2
to turn off paging options your callers will hear nothing but your recorded message.
Thanks to all who contributed!!
Another thing that can save a little bit of time is to go to
4 personal options
3 for greetings
1 to change the greeting
2 for standard message with your recorded name
So instead of a full recorded greeting, it will just say "Jeff Koenig" - "is not available," etc etc.
Not as great as completely disabling the instructions, but it does save a little bit of time.
I did this. It still says after my message: "At the tone please leave your message or press 5 for more options"
Any idea what you do if oyu have an iphone? You don't get the regular voicemail prompts with the 'visual voicemail' and I tried calling myself, and that just got me into those annoying prompts that everyone else gets.
Another (more fun) solution, for any carrier:
1) get google voice (its getting easier, really)
2) add your google voice number to your friends and family or myfave numbers
3) tell people your new number, or use *72 to change your voice mail provider to your new google number
4) you now have free voicemail with transcription, email forwarding, and completely custom messages (also free calls to/from everyone, but that's another story)
Well you can only check your voicemail from your phone using that if you have a smartphone. Except of course the iPhone, any other smartphone will do though.
To check your voicemail from your phone, call your google number.
You can also go into your phone's settings, and change the voicemail checking # from *86 or whatever to your google number.
But in any case, I don't even listen to my voicemail anymore because google transcribes it and texts it to me.
I try calling *72 on my sprint diamond, but it just says this number is invalid!?!
Never mind figured it out. But Sprint charges money no matter what :(
Sorry, should have been more specific:
Wireless Carrier or Network ---> Activation Code
AT&T Cingular, T-Mobile, GSM network: *004*1[GVnumber]*11#
Verizon (CDMA network): *71[GVnumber] AND *90[GVnumber] AND *92[GVnumber]
Verizon (TDMA Network): *74[GVnumber] and *73[GVnumber]
Bluegrass Cellular: *90#[GVnumber] and *92#[GVnumber]
Cellcom: *68[GVnumber]
Cincinnati Bell: *004*[GVnumber]#
US Cellular: *74[GVnumber]
detailed instructions can be found here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=00a93855af6943b4&hl=en
From my experience, Google Voice's transcription ability is horrible.
But that's only from me calling once to test it.
I'm on T-Mobile(U.S.) and as soon as I set my own voice mail greeting that canned message went away. Is this just not applicable to T-Mobile? And if so why are they including T-Mobile in this?
Doesn't work for me… I'm on T-Mo as well, and I have a short recorded greeting, after which the T-Mo VM instructions are presented in their entirety.
Really? How strange... I did get my T-Mobile number back in '03 or so. Maybe they started having those messages more recently? Then again my fiancee just started on T-Mobile like a year ago and hers never had that either. How weird...
Your callers don't get the "Record your message after the tone. To send a numeric page, press five. When you are finished recording, hang up, or for delivery options, press pound." after your message?
Nope, never have. My fiancee's voicemail hasn't ever done that either. I always just assumed that when you set your greeting it goes away, 'cause that's been my experience.
Perhaps it's regional? I'm in Seattle...
I'm in Chicago,on T-Mobile, and I get the same thing unless I just tell them to press pound in my greeting.
San Diego for me. (I've seen some others on the previous posting about this say the same thing, that recording a new greeting gets rid of it, so I'm fairly sure it's not just me)
I had to manually disable it on t-mobile years ago, but I'm on a pre-paid, its not hard just call the voice mail number and pay attention to the options.
My experience with T-Mo is the same are Mark's (at least I think so... whenever I call my wife's phone, I just hear her message and then *beep*)
I tried fishing through the T-Mobile settings and found that under the greeting menu(dial into voicemail, press 3) there's several different options including using your personal greeting, using your name as your greeting and using your number as your greeting. Have you guys tried playing with those?
Well if you call a T-moible number and press # key, it skips entirely everything (including the person's own message) and goes straight to the beep after which you may leave your message
Does anyone have instructions for AT&T customers? I heard on this very blog that they did for iPhone users. So there must be a way either through the prompts or online. Maybe one can call customer service and see what they say as I am annoyed by that too, though it's more annoying for people calling me obviously since when I call my crew I still have to hear the rubbish.
To turn off the automated caller prompt on AT&T after your recorded greeting, go into your voicemail, then:
1. Go to Personal Options (press 4)
2. Go to Adminsitrative Options (Press 2)
3. Go to Cut-Through Paging (press 7)
4. Turn Cut-Through Paging OFF (Press 2)
Is this what you're asking about? :)
See above
I'm using an iPhone, I had to used option 6(auto play) rather than 7 as listed above, at least that is how I did it.
Works great, my father in-law HATES having to wait to leave a message.
I use YouMail for my voicemail and it works great. Thankfully AT&T doesn't charge extra to call forward to YouMail's voicemail number when i decline a call or whatever, although it does come out of my minutes.
334 people are disabling their voicemail instructions at this second.
That's happening NOW and only on The Now Network.
Only from Sprint.
The exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre.
No photos. Please.
thanks Sprint! i just got those stupid instructions off of my voicemail.
On Verizon you can hit " * " when you start to hear the greeting and will immediately get to the *beep* to leave your message. So at least if your the caller you can skip it manually :) I think that is better as you don't even have to heave the users recording.
Sprint let you hit 1 to skip it before, this is still a great option.
hear*
this is nothing new...I have had that turned off on my voice mail for some time now.
way to go sprint. I have been rooting for you for years
Verizon:
Press 4 for "Personal Options", then
Press 2 for "Administrative Options", then
Press 1 for "Geneneral Options"
Then you will have these three options:
6: Auto Play On or Off
7: Call Back Number Prompt On or Off
8: Rapid Prompt or Standard Prompt
Uhh... I'm on Verizon and I've had a personalized voicemail message for years. This is hardly just a Sprint or AT&T thing.
Hi stupid. This isn't about your personal voice message. It is about disabling the automated instructions before/after your message.
Congrats you got your DIPloma.
on certain carriers' voicemails when calling someone else (i know it works on att), hit "1" as soon as you hear the message and it'll automatically skip to the beep! I dont think it works on verizon, dono about the others
All these guys got it right for ATT,
4, 3, 2, 3.
That's that, I did it when I first got my phone.
GREAT!
On my T-Mobile phone I simply say in the message to press # in order to leave me a message. Pressing # automatically skips over the BS instructions and goes straight to the beep. It's not a disabling fix, but it sure does help.
Interesting artcile on Lifehacker discussing this:
http://lifehacker.com/5326511/bypass-cellphone-voicemail-instructions-with-one-star-pound
You should add that the sixth step would be to press "2" to disable the instructions.
Para Español
for ATT do this.
Dial ##002#
Problem solved
Took me a while to find this info.