Home Phone Voicemail

BT Voicemail answers calls when you're busy or can't get to the phone. Callers can leave a message for you to listen to later.

Voicemail is included for all Home Phone customers, including Digital Voice and Home Phone Standard.

• Listen to your messages
• Set up or reset your Voicemail PIN
• Change your Voicemail greeting
• Listen to Voicemail away from home
• Change how long your phone rings before Voicemail answers
• Compare Voicemail Essential and Premium Voicemail
• When your mailbox is full
• Troubleshooting Voicemail
• How other calling features work with Voicemail
• Switch off Voicemail

Listen to your messages

Listen to Voicemail at home

• When you hear an interrupted dial tone, dial 1571 to listen to your new messages.
• To listen to saved messages, dial 1571 and choose Option 1.

If you're using a Digital Voice handset, the screen shows how many messages you have. Press the Voicemail button to listen.

If you miss a call while you're already on the phone, Voicemail can take a message and ring you shortly after you hang up to let you know.

Set up or reset your Voicemail PIN

You'll need a Voicemail PIN to listen to your messages when you're away from home or link Voicemail to a mobile number.

1. Dial 1571 from your home phone.
2. Choose Option 3 for settings and features.
3. Choose Option 3 again to set up or reset your PIN.
4. Enter a PIN between 4 and 10 digits.

Change your Voicemail greeting

You can record one personal greeting for your home phone. Callers hear the same greeting whether your line is busy or unanswered.

1. Dial 1571 from your home phone.
2. Choose Option 2 from the main menu.
3. Choose Option 1 to record your own greeting, or Option 2 to use the standard greeting.
4. Record your message after the tone.
5. Press # to save it.
6. Confirm or re-record your greeting.
7. Press * to return to the greeting menu.

For more information, download the Voicemail user guide.

Listen to Voicemail away from home

You'll need to set up a Voicemail PIN before you can listen to your messages away from home.

1. Call your home phone number.
2. Wait for Voicemail to answer.
3. Press *.
4. Enter your Voicemail PIN.

Change how long your phone rings before Voicemail answers

You can change how many times your phone rings before Voicemail answers.

Digital Voice

Using your BT account

1. Sign in to your BT account.
2. Go to your products and choose Manage.
3. Select Digital Voice, then Voicemail.
4. Choose how many rings you want and save your changes.

Using your phone

1. Dial 1571.
2. Choose Option 3 for settings and features.
3. Choose Option 2 to set the number of rings.
4. Listen to the confirmation and end the call if you're happy.

Home Phone Standard

If you have Home Phone Standard, contact us and we'll change the number of rings for you.

Compare Voicemail Essential and Premium Voicemail

Premium Voicemail gives you extra features on Digital Voice and Home Phone Standard.

With Premium Voicemail you can:

• Store more messages.
• Receive longer messages.
• Keep messages for longer.
• Get a Voicemail message alert when a message is left while you're already on the phone.

Message storage and length

When your mailbox is full

If your mailbox is full, callers will hear:

"Sorry, this mailbox is full, it cannot accept any more messages."

When you dial 1571, you'll hear:

"Welcome to Voicemail. Voicemail is completely full. Please delete any unwanted messages."

Delete old messages to make space. Once you've deleted a message, it can't be retrieved.

Troubleshooting Voicemail

Can't delete a voicemail or access other messages

If you can't delete a voicemail, or have more than one message but can't get past the first one:

• Reset the handset and replace the batteries
• Call 1571
• When you hear the date and time of the voicemail, press 3. This will delete the voicemail and allow you to access the next message

How other calling features work with Voicemail

Call Waiting

If a call comes in while you're already on the phone:

• you'll hear an intrusion tone
• the caller hears a Call Waiting announcement
• if you don't take the call, it goes to Voicemail after 21 seconds

Reminder Call

If you don't answer a Reminder Call, it won't divert to Voicemail.

Call Diversion

If Call Diversion is active, you won't hear the usual interrupted dial tone. You'll only hear a changed dial tone when there's a new Voicemail message.

1471

1471 updates as normal if:

• Voicemail answers because there's no answer
• Call Waiting is active and you don't take the second call

It won't update if a call goes to Voicemail while the line is busy.

Alarm systems

Some social alarms and burglar alarms may not be compatible with Voicemail. Check with your alarm supplier before using it.

Call Protect

Voicemail includes Call Protect, which sends nuisance and unwanted calls to junk Voicemail. It helps block the worst offending calls and gives you more control.

With Premium Voicemail, you also get:

• VIP - make sure important calls are never sent to junk Voicemail.
• Do Not Disturb - stop calls at certain times.

Switch off Voicemail

If you want to switch off Voicemail, contact us and we'll do it for you.