Visual Voicemail

New2Smarty, RCS is supported in GBR with at least com.google.android.apps.messaging's messages.android_20250908_01_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic (289312100) update on my Fairphone 5.

For everyone else, see https://community.smarty.co.uk/t5/chats-hacks/visual-voicemail/m-p/67/highlight/true#M16 for the official response to this feature request.

I’ve just come back to smarty and I’m getting visual voicemail 

It's disgraceful Visual Voicemail and RCS aren't available on SMARTY. With the Vodafonethree merger, three (and this SMARTY) should just adopt the enhanced features from the Vodafone network.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

sixeyes It only works when your iPhone has signal, otherwise the caller gets sent to your usual voicemail. If you have signal and they leave a message it’s stored directly on your iPhone, of course it’s there regardless if you have signal or not afterwards because it’s all done on device.

Visual Voicemail is basically a server that stores your voicemail and sends it to you iPhone when you have signal. Three & Smarty don’t have the servers. 

In iOS 18, Apple introduced “Voicemail Transcription” as the updated version of Visual Voicemail. It automatically transcribes voicemail messages into text, allowing you to read them instead of listening.

This feature builds on previous Visual Voicemail functionality but with improved transcription accuracy and real-time processing. It works through the Phone app > Voicemail tab, provided your carrier supports it - which it clearly does because I've had it from day one on the Dev Beta of iOS18. Also...

Apple introduced Live Voicemail, which functions like an old-school landline answering machine. When someone leaves a voicemail, iPhone users can see a real-time transcription of the message as it’s being recorded. If the call seems important, you can pick up mid-voicemail and answer the call.

How It Works:

• When a call goes to voicemail, the message is transcribed live on your screen.

• You can read the message as it’s being left.

• If you want to talk to the caller, you can answer before they finish.

• If not, they’ll leave the voicemail as usual.

This feature is processed on-device for privacy and works without sending data to Apple’s servers. 

To enable it:

1. Go to Settings > Phone.

2. Tap Live Voicemail and toggle it on.

This is not the same as Voicemail Transcription, which provides text versions of saved voicemails after they’ve been recorded. Live Voicemail is an active, real-time feature.

Not sure I understand. Looks like the Visual Voicemail I remember. If I put my phone into airplane mode I can still listen to Visual Voicemail messages.

Perhaps you can explain how it's not Visual Voicemail and what you think is missing. It's possible I've never used some of it's features, so don't know what I'm missing.

I've got a list of recorded messages and can play them back without any signal. I think that's all I wanted.

sixeyes 

Sorry but it’s not really visual voicemail. It’s only on device when there is signal. Otherwise it’s old fashioned dial up voicemail 

Just wanted to say that Visual Voicemail started working on my iPhone a few weeks ago. And visual voicemail has moved on since I first switched to Smarty (and lost visual voicemail). It now gives me a message showing what the caller is saying, live, while they're leaving the message. Very cool.

The other feature I miss from moving to SMARTY is the ability to respond to short codes, but I don't need to do it very often, so it may have been fixed and I wouldn't know.

You could always try an app called "Hullomail* from the London based company, Thumbtel, which is a more than capable replacement for iPhone Visual Voicemail.r

MSF  okay, thanks, I'll check their reviews and what others have said about them and try and make an educated choice based on the information I can collect about their coverage etc.

For me, and for the others who do find not having visual voice mail a deal breaker, at least there appear to be options out there.