Last updated by Christian Robinette
What is Visual Voicemail?
Visual voicemail is a random-access voicemail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback. This means you can listen to whatever message you want and you do not have to listen to the messages in order.
Note: in order to use Visual voicemail with Ting the device must be running iOS 10 or later and GSM devices must be running the Ting Carrier Settings
Visual voicemail for iPhone
- Go to the Phone app, then tap the Voicemail tab
- Tap Set Up Now
- Create a voicemail password, then tap Done
- Enter your password again to confirm it, then tap Done
- Select Custom or Default. If you choose Custom, you can record a new greeting
- Tap Done to save your greeting
Transfer your existing Voicemail
To transfer your existing voicemail, follow these steps:
- Go to the Phone app, then tap the Voicemail tab.
- Tap Set Up Now.
- Enter your password,* then tap done.
- Record a custom greeting or use the default greeting, then tap Save.
If you forget your voicemail password, there's no way to reset it from your iPhone. You need to contact Ting customer support to reset your password.
Ting carrier settings for GSM iPhone
If you are running iOS 10 or later, you can insert the Ting GSM SIM card and accept the update to the Carrier settings. Once the update is applied, you will have access to features such as Visual Voicemail and Wi-Fi Calling.
If the phone doesn't automatically pick up the carrier update, you can prompt the phone by doing this.
- Open Settings
- Open About
- Check Carrier Version
- If it says Ting 28.4 or up, then the update applied
- If not, then you will need to tap the Carrier Version until the phone prompts you to accept the update.
For the sake of non-iPhone users, please title this article "Visual Voicemail - GSM iPhones" and refer to the device in the intro paragraph as an iPhone. It's not clear until the very last paragraph that none of the instructions apply to any other OS. (iPhone illustrations are routinely used to represent all smartphones for some reason, so their presence isn't a useful clue.)
Hi DD,
Thanks for the heads up. I'll message one of our team members and get the title to reflect properly.
Can you recommend a similar visual voicemail app for Android (Moto E4) on CDMA network?
Hi Stephen,
Have you tried the YouMail app? I asked around the office here and that was the one that people liked the most.
Hello. I have a 5S running ios 11 and Ting Carrier 29.0 but I am not given the choice to "set up now". The only thing I see is "dial voicemail", although the screen has changed. Is visual voicemail not supported on the iPhone 5S?
Hi Mike,
It should be an option on iPhone 5S. We may have to do some troubleshooting with you to find out what the issue is. If you reach out to one of our advisors they will be able to bring up your account and give a hand.
Hi Mike and Bryce... any update on your situation...were you able to switch from the old voicemail to visual voicemail? I activated a sim yesterday and unfortunately something in the system didn't catch and I got stuck with the old voicemail system on my iphone 6. I'm in contact with support but unfortunately nothing worked so now they're sending me a new SIM to try again. I'm hoping you found a different solution than that.
Hi Ronald, it's kind of a case by case bases with fixes. If the software is up to date on the device try the new SIM card first so that we can cross that off the list of what could be causing the issue.
Looks like I'll have to do that. BTW, I think the issue was caused because I somehow beat the system being setup... as soon as I got the email I inserted the SIM, booted up, and the first thing I did was configure voicemail. It seems it may take the system a while to recognize that it should be visual voicemail. The reason I believe that is that I did the same thing with my second iphone but I waited to setup the voicemail on the second one as I was trying to figure out what happened on the first phone. I then gave up, went to the second phone, and the voicemail screen was different....and when I set it up, visual voicemail was available. The only difference between the two phones is that the first one has more storage.
I have a new (to me) Nexus 6P and I am missing the old visual voicemail I had on my now ancient Galaxy SII. I followed the suggestion here to try YouMail, but I cannot get it activated. When I get to the point where the app indicates it is now going to tell Ting to send my missed calls to YouMail by dialing forwarding codes for me, I get an audio message that the numbers are incorrect, and the thing stalls. Any suggestions?
Hey Larry,
The setup is different for CDMA or GSM. On which network is your 6P currently active?
Sorry. CDMA - sim purchased from Ting.
Never mind. I found a number in the YouMail app which I inserted in my "Device Settings" "can use call forward busy" and "can use call forward no answer." I left the general "can use call forwarding" disabled - not sure of the consequence, but YouMail seems to be working well now on my Nexus 6P.
Now getting clear visual vm, plus vm in text.
That should be the correct settings for YouMail but if you enable "can use call forwarding", all calls will be forwarded and routed through YouMail. This is how Google Voice is usually set up.
If you have issues, try enabling it.
Thanks. Not sure though why I'd want all calls to go through YouMail - anything that is either not answered or not busy presumably will be answered by me, right? Or am I missing something?
(I think the human mind is like a frisbee. When new, it can take a lot of abuse and still remain resilient. But after a number of seasons in the sun, you have to be careful. It gets fragile and can easily break.)
Google Voice works like that and more or less intercepts all your calls, then forwards the call to your phone number, spoofing the caller ID.
This way, Google Voice can interpret a "hangup" missed call (pushing the red button) from an actual missed, "i wasn't there to answer it" call, and route both to the voicemail system.