Android Native Visual Voicemail Trouble

Thanks for all the advice and help. Unfortunately this is the end of the road for me. Via support I was told that the engineers advice was to 1) delete the Verizon voicemail app and 2) they can't guarantee that features will work on every phone.

Google also said it was a carrier settings issue, which makes sense as their code hasn't changed.

Alas, this won't be resolved so back to big red it is. Good luck to all of you and thanks again for the help troubleshooting!

I am having the same issue but with a T-Mobile Oneplus 6T.

Ok so I came to TMo from Verizon with the get out of the red promotion with a Pixel 2.  at first my native visual voicemail wasn't working and I had to do the old school call in voicemail.  I called I called tech support and it seems that for some reason the visual voicemail feature was not active on my account so they turn that on and it fixed it.  Then trying to save some money I bought an unlocked Motorola phone from Best buy and all of a sudden I get the same "can't activate visual voicemail message.  I am able to use the T-Mobile visual voicemail app but like a previous user said above, I don't want to use more apps that I need to.  After calling tech support again they told me that it was most likely an issue with that phone since it's not a T-Mobile certified device so I return the phone.  Then still wanting a new phone I decide to go to my T-Mobile store and get a brand new OnePlus 6T.  Well what do you know to my amazement I have the same issue with the 6T.

I can confirm I am experiencing the same problem. I recently upgraded from Pixel 2XL to Pixel 3 and the native Visual Voicemail in Google Phone app stopped working. It was working fine before. I get an error: "Can't activate visual voicemail" when I click on the Voicemail tab.

When will you stop blocking native visual voicemail in the stock Android phone dialer app? People don't want to be forced to use the additional T-Mobile visual voicemail garbage app. Stop forcing your crapware on us.

@nakeddroid found the answer!

I followed his instructions and it worked perfectly with one additional step.

Here what I did...

1) Installed TMobile Visual Voicemail.

2) Activate Visual Voicemail using the TMobile Visual Voicemail app.

2) Listen to a voicemail inside of the TMobile Visual Voicemail app.

3) Delete TMobile Visual Voicemail app.

4) Open Android Phone Dialer. Go to Settings -> Voicemail. Turn off Visual Voicemail. Wait a few seconds. Turn back on Visual Voicemail.

At this point Visual Voicemail started working for me in the Android dialer and all voicemails show up, play and are transcribed.

Everything is working solid on my Pixel 3 now.

Its been over a year since this has been reported, has t-mobile given up on trying to fix this?  Its clear they've given up on the t-mobile voicemail app.  Would make sense to support the native android visual voicemail.

joshnk, I actually just upgraded from a Pixel 2 to a Pixel 3.  I also recently moved from Sprint to t-mobile (with my Pixel 2, Android 9 where the visual voicemail DID work).  However, when I upgraded to the Pixel 3 last week, same exact situation as you describe and I went through all the variants of clearing cache, phone app version uninstall/re-install.

But...it worked yesterday but not until I experimented with deleting my Gmail MS Exhange account I use for work.  My employer's security policy that is adapted when you link up the exchange account (whether Gmail, Nine, Bluemail, Outlook, etc) is such that is locks down certain "conveniences" of the phone which I live with to have my work email on my phone.  I thought it was successful because, merely seconds after deleting the exchange account, Visual Voicemail in the phone app sprang to life.

I then lost it again for good when I tried to install another email client in attempt to try another exchange email connection...but after deleting that one, VVM on the phone was still unable to activate and I'm still unable to activate EVEN AFTER a factory reset and fresh start...perplexing.

In advanced settings for the voice mail in the google phone app, what is listed under service and setup? If this isn't setup correctly it won't activate at all. It should be Service > Your Carrier then setup should be +18056377243.

Yes, the vvm app works but doesn't pull in all messages. Since I've

experienced the native vvm on a pixel 2 with T-Mobile and ever so briefly

yesterday with my pixel 3 I'm determined to get native vvm functional so I

don't have a separate app.

I too can confirm no issues with the pixel 2. The issue is with my pixel 3.

Same plan, same os, same phone settings... Just different phone. I'm not

one plus, just one. Voice to text is an option but I don't pay for it.

Latest conversations with TMO indicate known issues and a trending sense

that the current process of activating 5g capabilities may be

conflicting... Who knows.