Don’t lose important messages: How to save your voicemails

January 7, 2023

By Kim Komando

Life is short, and there’s more than ever to think about when it comes to the end of life. Tap or click for steps to decide who gets access to your accounts when you’re gone.

If you’ve lost someone, you know how comforting pictures and videos can be. Being able to read old text conversations is special, too. Tap or click for the best way to save your texts.

Your smartphone’s voicemail might be another place to hear words from a loved one. Don’t bet on your phone to save it for you indefinitely. Here’s how to keep a copy for good.

Saving voicemails on an iPhone

Apple makes it easy to save and share voicemails. This is excellent for business or personal use. Just be careful you’re sharing what you want to.

To save or share a voicemail on iPhone:

• Go to the Phone app and tap Voicemail in the bottom right.
• Tap on the voicemail you want to save, then tap the share button. It looks like a box with an arrow pointing out of it.
• You can now share this voicemail via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Notes or Voice Memo.
• To save the voicemail on your phone, select Notes or Voice Memo. You can access the saved message again in either app and play it back at your leisure. Both apps automatically back up the file to iCloud if you have iCloud enabled.
• To save the voicemail to your computer, select AirDrop, then tap on your computer’s name. Be sure both devices are connected to the same network. On your computer, accept the AirDrop, and save the message wherever you want.
• To send the voicemail to another person, select a contact in Messages or Mail, or share via AirDrop with someone nearby. 

Saving voicemails on an Android

Various manufacturers make android phones, so saving voicemails differs slightly depending on the model you own. But you can follow some general steps to keep those important messages.

• Open your Voicemail app or go to the Voicemail section in your Phone app.
• Tap or tap and hold the message you want to save.
• In the menu that appears, look for options like Save, Export, or Archive.
• Select the storage location in your phone to which you would like the message to go, and tap OK or Save.

Get voicemails from an old phone

If you have voicemails saved on a non-smartphone, your best bet is to record them on a computer. This requires some equipment, but not as much as you might think.

To save voicemails on older phones:

• Download Audacity or a similar audio recording program to your computer. If you have a Mac, Garageband can do what you need.
• Figure out if your old phone has a headphone jack.
  • If it does, get a 3.5mm audio cable and plug one end into the headphone jack on your phone and the other end into the jack of your computer.
  • If it doesn’t, turn up the volume on your phone and get a microphone or hold the phone close to the opening for your computer’s internal microphone. You may need to experiment to find the exact location.
• Open your phone’s voicemail and find the message you want to save.
• In your audio recording program, click record, and play the message. When the message is done, stop the recording.
• Save the file on your computer to preserve it.

The audio quality may not be perfect, but at least that message won’t be lost forever if something happens to your old device.