Forum Discussion
Android Native Visual Voicemail Trouble
I'm using a Pixel2XL on T-Mobile and the native Visual Voicemail (built into the Google Phone app) will not activate. The VM tab hace show, and I have the option checked in the menu settings for the Phone app. I continue to get the messages "Visual Voicemail Activating" and "Can't activate Visual Voicemail". I have VVM on my plan via the ONE Plus add-on.
I have removed the T-Mobile VVM app as I know that it will deactivate the native VVM. I have reset network settings, restarted the phone, and spoken with both T-Mobile and Google. I have yet to be given a reason this is not working.
(Note: brought the phone over from Verizon but it's unlocked - all other data and voice functionality is good)
UPDATED 7/13/2021:
For folks wondering if their Native VVM app will work on T-Mobile's network, here's some helpful info. The native VVM app on Non-T-Mobile devices isn't something T-Mobile can guarantee will work with the VVM service. This goes for other native apps as well. We recommend folks download T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app I've linked below and use the VVM service through that app. The second link I posted below is for troubleshooting if you happen to run into any issues.
We have a couple articles that can help with this. Check out the two links below in relationship to the issue.
App de Correo de voz visual de T-Mobile
Solución de problemas del correo de voz
Curiosity got the better of me & I ventured into a T-mobile store this afternoon and uninstalled the t mobile visual voicemail app from the oneplus 6t that was on display and I was able to activate the native visual voicemail on that particular device.
I'm thinking it maybe some kind of backend configuration on most of our accounts that are preventing some of our native visual voicemail apps from activating... of course the poor sales girl had no idea... but I'm sad that the "engineers" can't figure this out.
After you uninstalled the TMO VVM app and enabled the Goog VVM --- did it
work? On my phone, I could install VVM but it never worked. I reinstalled
the TMO app and the opportunity to use the Android VVM disappeared; but
since it didn't work, I don't care.
Note that Goog VVM worked great (as did wifi calling, hd VoLTE, etc.) on
Oreo; but when I updated to Pie on my brand new Nokia phone, those stopped
working as did Goog VVM. I reached out to Nokia support and they told me I
could bring the phone into a local service center and they'd downgrade me
to Oreo (which worked); but, the nearest service center is about 5000 miles
away in Europe 😥
They did tell me that Goog was aware of these problems and a fix is coming
in the next update of Android. So the net/net is: this is likely a
Google/Android problem and not TMO.
I was able to activate it on the 6T on display in the store, I waited a while for the error but it never errored like normal.
My friend is with Tmobile and has a Oneplus 6T and he let me know this morning that all of a sudden his began working today.
That's great, seems to be some kind of ongoing rollout of a fix.
REALLY wish they'd be transparent about this.
Mine is in the same state it was a couple weeks ago -- it "works" but I get
that bizarre Apple transcription for a few seconds, plus the voicemail
timestamp is 1 hour earlier than the actual time it was left.
Praise the Lord Carl Sagan! Mine works now.
Through the native Oreo 8.1 phone app, I can get it to activate but it always says "Your voicemail inbox is empty / MAKE A CALL". If I install the T-Mobile Android VVM app, then I can see the two saved voicemails. I've tried the toggling on/off and it works instantly for activation, but no luck of it actually populating the tab with voicemails.
If VVM is turned on in the native phone app, Voicemail notifications don't work anymore as well.
For the people who have it working, is it working 100%, like before, under Nougat?
I have 2 Sony xperia XA2 and the one running stock android 8.0,0 has the same android vvm problem described in the thread.
The other is running lineage android 8.1.0 and has no problems whatsoever.
I spent an hour on the phone with tmobile and ended up with very poorly informed rep who told me that the "frequencies" of my XA2 were too old to work with vvm.
Interesting that it works fine with 8.1 but not 8.0.
Visual Voicemail broken after changing to Prepaid Rebellion Plan. I'm using a Nokia 6.1 on Android 9 and it worked with T-mobile before I changed sim cards. As soon as switched to the Rebellion plan, I received a text from T-mobile telling me to download T-mobile Visual Voicemail app from the Play Store
Until recently, I wasn't even aware that there was native vvm functionality bulit-in to Android. I'd always used the T-Mobile vvm app and had problems with it: sometimes a whole day would pass where I wouldn't get a notification that I had any voicemail messages and then, at the end of the day, I suddenly got notified that multiple voicemails had been left for me hours ago.
I was messing around with someone else's iPhone a week ago, and really liked how the vvm was built-in to the dialer. I started thinking there must be a way to do this in Android. That's when I realized this was actually an option in Android and was possible with my phone (Razer phone).
I uninstalled the T-mobile vvm app and tried to activate my phone's vvm. I got (and 3 days later am still getting) the "Can't activate visual voicemail" error message. Interestingly, as soon as I started trying to activate the Razer's native vvm, I also started getting text messages from T-Mobile encouraging me to download the "new version" of their vvm app - the one I just uninstalled.
