How to Activate or Turn Off Voicemail on iPhone in 2026

Key Points:

• You have two major ways to set up voicemail on iPhone: traditional and visual. 
• Visual voicemail offers a superior experience, letting you see who called you, a transcription of what they said, and scrubber-based playback. 
• To deactivate or fully disable a voicemail, you need to use a specified provider code or contact your provider directly. 

With everything our smartphones can do in 2026, it can be challenging to remember that the primary use of an iPhone is to be a phone, after all. That means making calls. But what if you're not available when someone rings you? Then you'll need to know how to activate or turn off voicemail on an iPhone. We're going through a quick and easy guide on how to properly configure your voicemail settings, how it works, how to disable it, and how to change your greetings from default settings to something custom for your Talkmobile SIM Only plan.

It only takes a few seconds to get your voicemail configured properly on an iPhone via two main methods. You can either go for the traditional dial-in route or via visual voicemail.

Traditional dial-in voicemail can be set up by pressing and holding 1, which dials the phone's internal voice server. You'll have an audio cue on how to set up a password and record your name as a custom greeting. By default, it will be specific to your provider, with an automated voice.

Visual voicemail can be configured with a four- or six-digit code from the Set Up Now button. You'll be given the option of a default or a custom greeting, which you can set up by following on the on-screen instructions.

You cannot deactivate voicemail on an iPhone from the handset itself. Instead, you have to use code commands to properly close your virtual voicemail mailbox. For Talkmobile, you can dial ##002# and then press the green call button, which signals to permanently stop sending unanswered calls to your voicemail. You can also call 5888 from your Talkmobile phone or ring the dedicated support line on 0333 304 8064. For webchat and other services, use Talkmobile's Contact Us page.

For other providers, you can try a universal erasure code, such as ##004#, and then hit the green call button. Depending on the network, this can signal to your provider to deactivate all call forwarding, which shuts off your voicemail. You can also try calling #61#, which can signal not to forward calls, which can act as another workaround for shutting off the voicemail box.

While traditional voicemail has its place, visual voicemail is far and away the best way to set up and use your voicemail inbox. You can easily scrub through recorded messages, see who called you, and have an active (and usually fairly accurate) transcription.

If you're torn between which of the two voicemail methods to configure, then this handy guide comparing the two allows you to weigh up the strengths of each. As the name implies, visual voicemail appears on your phone screen, showing you who called, and even transcribing what was said so you don't necessarily even have to ring back to know what it was about.

You can swap between your carrier-specific greeting and use a personalised one with our easy step-by-step guide:

• Open the Phone app and open the Voicemail tab
• Tap Greetings in the top left corner of the screen
• Select Custom to then begin recording your personalised voicemail greeting
• Tap on Play to listen back to the voice recording to hear how you sound to incoming callers
• Tap on Save to finish the process