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.
ozozznozzy wrote:SereneFalls 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.
Hearing more now, it sounds like it definitely is on purpose by T-Mobile. At least for Samsung T-Mobile locked phones. My Samsung Galaxy phone was bought from T-Mobile and the default phone app has no built-in visual voicemail. I tried the Google Phone dialer app but the voicemail tab never shows up and trying to activate it fails. I found out Samsung has a Visual Voicemail app separately that comes with their phones but it's also no where to be found. Also it's been blocked from both the Google Play Store and Galaxy Store. When I try to open the link to install the app from a browser I get a note that says 'content blocked by my provider'. I can't help but think this is all done on purpose by T-Mobile to force users to use their own Visual Voicemail app and not due to some voicemail update I don't have. Honestly I wouldn't even mind if their T-Mobile's visual voicemail app worked great, but it really does not. I'll try again when my phone is unlocked, but doubt anything will work as long as I have a T-Mobile SIM with a Samsung phone.
