Voicemail answers and records calls when you're away from the phone or busy on another call. When you have a new message, you will hear an interrupted dial tone on the phone line. You can store up to 20 messages for Voicemail Essential and up to 30 for Voicemail.
Accessing your voicemail messages
Dial 1571 from your home phone to access your voicemail mailbox. Digital Voice handsets will show any new messages on the screen. Press the voicemail button to listen. The maximum length of a single message for Voicemail Essential is 2 minutes; for Voicemail, it is 5 minutes.
When your inbox is full
If your inbox is full, the person calling you will hear the message '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.' Once the message has been deleted, there's no way of retrieving it.
Voicemail
If you miss a call because you're on the phone, voicemail will take a message and ring you shortly after you've hung up and tell you that you have a message.
Voicemail customers will have access to saved messages for 30 days. Unopened messages will be kept for 6 months.
Voicemail Essential
Voicemail Essential customers will have access to saved messages for 20 days. Any voicemails you have not listened to will be stored for 60 days.
Accessing your voicemail away from home
With Voicemail and Voicemail Essential, you can access your messages when you're away from home, in the UK and abroad.
To access your messages, you will need to set up a PIN from your Home Phone.
To set up your PIN:
- Dial 1571 from your home phone.
- Press option 3 from the main menu for settings and features.
- Then press option 3 again to reset/setup the PIN. Your pin can be between 4-10 digits.
Once your PIN is set up, you need to link your mobile number. Dial 1571 from your home phone and select option 3 for settings and features, then option 4 for the Mobile Linking menu.
To check your messages when you're out and about, call your home number and wait for voicemail to answer. Then press the star (*) key and enter your PIN to access your messages.
If your mobile is linked to Call Minder, you'll get a text message whenever someone leaves a voicemail on your messaging service.
Setting up a personal greeting with BT Voicemail
To set up a new greeting:
- Dial 1571 from your home phone.
- Press option 2 from the main menu to set a personal greeting.
- Then press option 1 to record a personal greeting or option 2 to choose the standard greeting.
If you choose to record a personal greeting by pressing option 1, you'll then be able to record a greeting after the tone. Listen to what you've recorded before deciding whether to use it. Once you have finished recording, press hash (#) to finish and save your greeting.
To cancel recording and return to the greeting menu, press star (*).
Callers will hear the same greeting you have set up, regardless of whether the line is busy or unanswered.
Voicemail settings
You can change the number of rings before the call transfers to Voicemail.
- Sign in to My BT.
- Scroll down to your products and select Manage.
- Select manage on Digital Voice.
- Scroll down to features and select Manage under Voicemail.
- Choose your ring length and save.
Voicemail calling features
BT Call Protect
BT Call Protect is a new service that will send nuisance and unwanted calls to a junk voicemail.
To find out more information on this service and how to manage it, go to www.bt.com/help/bt-call-protect. As a voicemail customer with BT Call Protect, you'll receive two extra features.
Your Voicemail service will continue as normal.
VIP – Make sure your important calls are never sent to your junk voicemail.
Do Not Disturb - You can use your 'Do Not Disturb' feature to block out specific times of the day.
Call Diversion
When you have Call Diversion and Voicemail, you won't hear the usual interrupted dial tone. Instead you'll only hear a change in dial tone when there is a new voicemail message.
BT 1471
BT 1471 speaks the last number that called you. 1471 Call Return lets you return the call straight away by pressing 3. 1471 won't update with the last number called if the call goes to voicemail when the line is busy.
Call Waiting
If you're on a call when an incoming call arrives, an intrusion tone will alert you that a new call is waiting. The caller will hear the Call Waiting announcement. If you decide not to take the new call, it will be diverted to voicemail after 21 seconds.