How to Turn Off Voicemail on iPhone and Android

You never listen to your voicemail. The red badge sits there for weeks, half the messages are spam or robocalls, and the ones that matter arrive days late because you never open the tab. Turning voicemail off sounds like it should take ten seconds — but if you have already hunted through Settings, you know there is no switch. That is not an oversight. Your mailbox does not live on your phone at all.

This guide explains which of the three voicemail layers you are actually switching off, the exact steps for iPhone and Android, the dial code that stops the forwarding, and what to do when your carrier refuses.

The three layers of voicemail — and which one you can switch off

Most guides fail here because they treat "voicemail" as one thing. It is three, and each has its own switch — or none at all.

Apple's own voicemail guide makes the split explicit: when your iPhone is off or out of your carrier's range, calls are sent to carrier voicemail if your carrier provides it — Live Voicemail never sees them. So if your goal is "callers can no longer leave me a message," the phone settings alone cannot deliver it. You need one of the two carrier-level methods below.

Turn off Live Voicemail on iPhone

Choose this if the live transcript screen bothers you, or if spam calls keep landing in Live Voicemail. It takes about ten seconds, and it changes nothing with your carrier.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Apps, then tap Phone.
3. Find Live Voicemail and turn it off.

On iOS 17 the Phone settings sit directly in the main Settings list, so the path is Settings > Phone > Live Voicemail. Live Voicemail arrived with iOS 17, and it is not offered in every country, region or language — if you never see the option, your iPhone simply is not using it. Apple documents the same path in its iPhone voicemail setup guide.

Cancel the forwarding that sends calls to voicemail (dial code)

Voicemail works because of a setting called conditional call forwarding: when you do not answer, are busy, or your phone is off, the network quietly forwards the call to your mailbox. Cancel that forwarding and the call simply keeps ringing until the caller hangs up — there is no mailbox left to reach.

Step 1: write down your current forwarding

1. Open the Phone app and go to the keypad.
2. Dial `*#61#` and press the call button.
3. The screen shows your voicemail number and the current ring delay.

Write the voicemail number down exactly. You need it if you ever want voicemail back, and you cannot copy it from the status screen. Our guide to making your phone ring longer before voicemail walks through the same `*#61#` check in detail.

Step 2: cancel the forwarding

1. Open the Phone app and tap Keypad.
2. Dial `##004#` and press the call button.
3. Wait for the network's on-screen reply confirming the change.

`##004#` is the standard GSM code that cancels all conditional call forwarding — the no-answer, busy and unreachable rules together. It is the code most guides cite for AT&T and T-Mobile, and it works on many other GSM carriers too. On Verizon, the equivalent is `*73`, which cancels no-answer forwarding — and you still need to call Verizon support to remove the mailbox itself.

Ask your carrier to remove voicemail — the only guaranteed way

If the dial code does nothing, or you want the mailbox gone for good rather than just un-forwarded, contact your carrier and ask them to remove voicemail from your line. This works on any phone and any iOS or Android version, because it changes the line itself.

• In the carrier's app or website: look for voicemail or call settings on your line — some carriers expose a remove-voicemail option there.
• By phone or chat: ask support to "remove voicemail from my line" and confirm on the call that it is gone.
• Ask two questions before you hang up: will my saved messages be deleted, and how do I turn voicemail back on later? The answers vary by carrier, and you will not get a second chance at the saved messages.

This is also the only method that works when your plan bundles voicemail in a way the dial code cannot touch. Some carriers or plans do not allow removal at all — in that case the workarounds in the next section are your fallback.

Turn off Visual Voicemail on Android

On Android, the switch you can reach controls the visual list in the Phone app — not the mailbox. Turn it off if you want the voicemail tab and its notifications gone from the phone itself.

1. Open the Phone app (Phone by Google on Pixel and most stock-Android phones).
2. Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) at the top right, then tap Settings.
3. Tap Voicemail.
4. Turn off Visual voicemail.

Google's own voicemail help page confirms this path and warns that turning off Visual voicemail deletes the recordings from your Phone app, while your carrier might keep a copy. If you see no Visual voicemail switch, your carrier does not support it in the Google Phone app — use your carrier's own voicemail app settings, or the carrier route above. On Samsung phones the same settings live in the Samsung Phone app under the three-dot menu > Settings > Voicemail, though the exact labels vary by model and One UI version.

If your carrier will not remove it: two workarounds

When removal is not an option, you can still make voicemail effectively disappear for callers.

Forward all calls to another number. Call forwarding sends every incoming call to a second number — a work phone, a family member, or a landline — so calls never reach your phone and never reach voicemail. On iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Forwarding and turn it on (on a Dual SIM iPhone, choose the line first). Apple's call-forwarding documentation notes the built-in switch only works on GSM networks; other networks need the carrier to set it up. The obvious cost: you must actually want your calls answered elsewhere.

Record a "no voicemail" greeting. Open the Phone app, go to the Voicemail tab, and record a custom greeting that says something like "This number does not accept voicemail — please send a text instead." Callers still reach the mailbox, but they hear your message and most will not leave one. Our guide to changing your voicemail greeting covers the exact steps on iPhone and Android.

How to test it — and how to turn voicemail back on

Do not trust the settings screen. The only test that counts is a real call:

1. Call your own number from another phone.
2. Let it ring for a full 30 seconds without answering.
3. If voicemail is truly off, the phone keeps ringing until the caller hangs up. If a greeting or beep answers, something is still forwarding — re-check the dial code result or call your carrier.

To turn voicemail back on, reverse whichever method you used: switch Live Voicemail or Visual voicemail back on in Settings, or ask your carrier to re-add voicemail to your line. If you cancelled forwarding with `##004#`, guides report that dialling `**004*` followed by your voicemail number and `#` restores the default forwarding on many GSM networks — use the number you wrote down in Step 1, and confirm with your carrier if the code does not work.

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