Voicemail to text on Android: Pixel, Samsung and carrier apps

On a Google Pixel, open the Phone app, tap More options, then Settings, then Voicemail, and turn on Voicemail transcription. On a Samsung Galaxy or another Android phone the route depends on your carrier's visual voicemail app and, on newer Galaxy phones, on Samsung's Direct voicemail, so find your phone below and follow that section.

Google Pixel and the Phone app

Google's Phone app does the work, in two steps. First turn on visual voicemail, which puts your messages in a list inside the app: open the Phone app, tap More options at the top right, tap Settings, then Voicemail, and switch on Visual voicemail. Then, on the same Voicemail screen, switch on Voicemail transcription. Google transcribes new and old voicemails once it's on. Your messages are under the Voicemail tab at the bottom of the app, and Share sends a transcript to someone else.

Not every phone and carrier gets the option. Google's help page lists the carriers that offer visual voicemail and the carrier and device combinations that get transcripts, and says availability may vary by country or region. Transcription is only available in English and Spanish, on Android 8.0 and up.

Google says it uses computers to transcribe voicemails and doesn't associate them with your Google Account. The voicemails aren't permanently stored by Google; they're stored on your phone. Turning transcription off deletes the recordings and transcriptions from the Phone app, and turning off visual voicemail deletes the recordings from the app too, although your carrier might keep a copy.

Take a Message on Pixel 6 and later

Take a Message handles calls you miss or decline. It saves an audio recording and a written transcript to your phone, which you find on the Phone app's Home tab, in the details of the missed or declined call. Google says you can use it at no charge, and that live transcription works on Pixel 6 and later phones in the United States and the other countries it lists (as of 2026). The phone records and transcribes on the device, so it needs no Wi-Fi or mobile data connection.

To turn it on, update the Phone app, then tap Menu, Settings, Take a Message, and switch it on. For people who don't use Visual Voicemail it might turn on automatically. Calls go to your regular voicemail instead when the phone is roaming, off or out of coverage, or when it rings too long before the feature can start.

Samsung Galaxy

To set up visual voicemail on a Galaxy, Samsung says to open the app on your phone, and its name and icon may vary by carrier. For a transcript of a saved message, check your carrier's section below. Samsung's own options are these.

Direct voicemail. Samsung says it lets callers leave a voicemail when you can't answer, lets you send calls to voicemail directly or after a set ring time, and lets you answer while the caller is still recording. It's only available on Galaxy phones running Android 16 with One UI 8.5 or higher, and features vary by model, software version and carrier. To switch it on, open the Phone app, tap More options (the three vertical dots), tap Settings, tap Direct voicemail, flip the switch at the top, then tap Agree.

Samsung's page says the voice transcription is visible on the screen even when the phone is locked, and warns that it might not be accurate. To open a message left during recording, open the Phone app, select the call from the Recent calls list, tap the Voicemail message and view the recorded message. A voicemail recorded after the caller hangs up shows in the list as a voicemail record, not a missed call. Direct voicemail works only when the phone is on and connected to your mobile network, normal call rates apply, it doesn't work for video calls, and it might not work when internal storage is almost full.

If you see Transcript assist on the Direct voicemail screen, Samsung describes it there as the time before incoming calls go to voicemail. In the call recording settings, the same name covers transcripts of recorded calls.

Live Caption and Live Transcribe. Samsung's page on Live Caption and Live Transcribe describes two ways to caption a voicemail as you play it. For Live Caption, go to Settings, Accessibility, Hearing enhancements, Live Caption, tap Use Live Caption, then call your voicemail, and the captions present a transcription in real time. For Live Transcribe, go to Settings, Accessibility, Hearing enhancements, Live Transcribe and tap Open Live Transcribe, add it to Multi-Window, open your voicemail in the other window and play the messages on speaker.

Other Android phones: your carrier's voicemail app

Each carrier below runs its own voicemail transcription with its own terms. They're as the carriers' pages read in October 2026, and carriers change plans, so confirm yours before you subscribe to anything. For any other carrier, Google's Phone app help names the carrier and device combinations that get transcripts in the Phone app, and your carrier's own visual voicemail help covers its app.

Verizon

Verizon's Visual Voicemail (Included) has no transcription. To read a transcription of each message on Android, you subscribe to Premium Visual Voicemail. It's a paid add-on that isn't available on prepaid accounts or on iPhone. A new or upgraded Android device gets it for 30 days at no added cost, and Verizon says it won't start billing automatically when the trial ends.

To subscribe, make sure standard voicemail is set up and active, open the Visual Voicemail app, review the terms and tap Accept, tap Subscribe to Premium, then tap the button to subscribe to Premium Visual Voicemail. Wait 5 minutes for it to activate, then reopen the app. Only the first 45 seconds of each message get transcribed.

AT&T

AT&T's Visual Voicemail app includes a Voicemail to Text setting, which AT&T's terms call VMTT. It converts the message to text and sends it to you inside the app, and the app is for AT&T wireless customers. The terms say VMTT comes without a monthly recurring charge. Data charges apply when the audio is sent for transcription and the text comes back, and extra charges may apply if transcribed messages are forwarded by text or email, depending on your plan.

On a Google device, AT&T's guide puts the switch in the Phone app instead: Menu, Settings, Voicemail, then the Voicemail transcription switch. AT&T says transcription times can't be guaranteed and the service may be taken down for maintenance.

T-Mobile

The T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app is for Android devices, and iPhones use their built-in voicemail app. Voicemail to Text is an add-on inside it. Open Visual Voicemail, tap Menu, then Settings, then Add Voicemail to Text. Continue to the upgrade, where the screen shows the cost and availability, and confirm. Only the Primary Account Holder can subscribe, and prepaid accounts are excluded.

Once it's on, the Send as SMS setting under Menu and Settings turns text delivery on or off. If you started on a free trial and want out, the path is Menu, Settings, End Voicemail to Text free trial, then Unsubscribe. T-Mobile's ScamShield Premium bundle also includes voicemail transcripts texted to you, at its own monthly per-line fee. T-Mobile's price lock FAQ lists Voicemail to text and ScamShield Premium among the non-data features that are subject to change.

Cricket

Cricket says its service includes Basic Voicemail and Visual Voicemail on smartphones at no extra charge, and that with visual voicemail you can read transcripts of your messages. Select Android phones have Visual Voicemail built in, and Cricket offers a Visual Voicemail app for Android phones without it. Cricket's license terms add that Voicemail to Text has no monthly recurring charge but uses your data, including your high-speed data allotment.

If your voicemail says transcription isn't available

Maybe the message reads "transcription not available", or there's simply no text under the voicemail. These are the conditions Google, Samsung and the carriers themselves give for a transcript that doesn't appear. Work down the list until one matches your phone.

• Your carrier or phone isn't on Google's list. The Phone app shows visual voicemail and transcripts only with some carriers and devices. If the Voicemail transcription option is missing and you do use a supported one, turn on visual voicemail first.
• Language or Android version. Google's transcription covers English and Spanish, on Android 8.0 and up.
• Two voicemail apps. When you use your carrier's voicemail app, the visual voicemail feature in the Phone app turns off to avoid a conflict, so pick one app.
• Two SIMs. Using visual voicemail on multiple SIMs may not be supported by your device or carrier, and if you change your data SIM you may have to re-enable visual voicemail.
• Verizon. Visual Voicemail (Included) has no transcription, so you need Premium Visual Voicemail, which isn't offered on prepaid accounts, and only the first 45 seconds of a message are transcribed.
• T-Mobile. Only the Primary Account Holder can add Voicemail to Text, and prepaid accounts are excluded. If messages won't download or appear in the app, T-Mobile's Android steps are to turn off Wi-Fi so you're on its network, update the Visual Voicemail app, clear the app's cache and data, and uninstall battery-saver apps that can conflict with voicemail. Clearing the data deletes messages over a month old and any saved only in the app.
• AT&T. Transcription times can't be guaranteed, and the service may be down for maintenance.
• Samsung Direct voicemail. It needs Android 16 with One UI 8.5 or higher, a phone that's on and connected to your mobile network, and enough free storage.
• Take a Message. It hands calls to regular voicemail when you're roaming, the phone is off or out of coverage, or the phone rings too long first. If your carrier's conditional call forwarding doesn't work with it, Google says to turn Take a Message off.

If nothing here matches, your carrier's support page for visual voicemail is the next stop.

Voicemail to text for a business line

Everything above reads your own phone's voicemail. If the phone is your business line, the voicemail can come from us instead. Once your cell forwards to VettedCalls, a caller you miss on Pro hears a greeting in your business name and leaves the message with us. We text you when it comes in, email you the full transcript with a link to play it, and log it in your dashboard. The text includes what the caller said when the transcript is ready within 15 seconds, and Settings has an "Include their message in that text" switch. Accounts for financial trades, wellness and community groups start with the short alert, and attorney accounts have voicemail transcription off, so an attorney plays the recording instead.

Our voicemail to text page walks through the whole sequence, call transcripts shows where each kind of transcript lives, call forwarding on Android covers the forwarding step, and call screening covers what happens to a call before it reaches you. The pricing page and the features page list the rest of what's included.