Forum Discussion
Visual Voicemail using Default Android 10 App (NOT T-Mobile App)?
Hi, I have a non-Tmobile provided Android 10 phone that has native Visual Voicemail app. Can I get that to work WITHOUT using T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app? If so how? Thanks, Sujith
I was going to add this to another thread, but it was locked. I discovered a work around. (persistence was key here). Note that I am not an expert, and your mileage may vary.
- If the T-Mobile account is older than a couple years, the voicemail box (on T-Mobile's end) needs an update. In order to do this, the user needs to request that a T-Mobile rep reset their voicemail account. (completely reset back to new)
- The voicemail box then needs to be authorized for visual voicemail, which is done through the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app. The user should not accept any of the extra services, as this will designate the Visual Voicemail app as the only usable external app for the T-Mobile voicemail service.
- Then the user must delete the T-Mobile visual voicemail app from their phone. This app blocks the voicemail user settings on android devices and cannot remain installed if the user wants to use stock or built-in voicemail services.
- The user can then restart their device and activate visual voicemail in the stock Google phone app.
I have tested this on a few different android devices, including a Oneplus 9, Oneplus 6t, and a Samsung Galaxy A50. So far, it works 100% of the time. This tells me that it is likely a T-Mobile software issue, but I'm mostly just glad that there seems to be a common solution.
Please like my reply if this solution worked for you. If you are not willing to do all these steps.. then unless you have a Nexus device or an IPhone, get comfy with the T-Mobile visual voicemail app. A lot of people have spent a lot of time looking for a solution.
SereneFalls wrote:ozozznozzy wrote:Lerimer wrote:
I couldn't get this to work with my Samsung Galaxy even after having a customer service rep reset my voicemail. Just curious are all the phones it worked on for you unlocked? Also what app did you use on your Galaxy S22+ where it worked?
Thanks for sharing anyway, hope one day T-Mobile just stops with all the carrier restrictions.
Honestly it's been a while. Ozozznozzy from a year ago was a lot more certain of the solution than I am today. Now all my devices work out of the box.
All my devices are purchased outright (no financing), but for sure the OnePlus 6t I first tried this on was still locked. So a little of both. I'm specifically referring to the built in Android phone app having a built in visual voicemail, and the "T-Mobile Visual Voicemail" app in the play store.
T-Mobile really just needs to resolve this. It's not even a money thing anymore, it's just a legacy bug from a relic subscription service. I think it just doesn't affect everyone so they haven't done much research into it.
I still think that long term customers who have had voicemail boxes for a long time seem to be missing an update that patched this problem. T-Mobile may just need to force a mass update to all voicemail boxes to fix this issue.
