Why is ATT disabling visual voicemail on Pixel phones?

I flat out told you it is a ims problem.  But I guess that does not matter.

@eldaino

No, you just keep changing your argument so my answers don’t fit your previous wrong assumptions.  

🤨.  

Next has nothing to do with the branded phones.  Zip, zero.  It’s a finance option for people who can’t plunk $800 on a phone all at once.  No one has to use it.    Google isn’t the only manufacturer with financing. 

   This is a public forum.  If you make incorrect statements, we will correct them.  If you cant take the corrections as given, that’s not our fault.   If you prefer smoke up your skirt, that what paid reps are for.  

@lizdance40

lol, my argument/issue hasn't changed. Like at all. It's been insanely consistent. 

Next has a lot to do with branded phones; can you finance a non-att branded phone on next that isn't an iphone? Nope. And we already know att takes a hands off approach to that device. 

So yeah, next, directly has something to do with att's own handsets because it's the way most people purchase one and only their handsets are offered on financing plans through them.

So....where you going with this? I've already marked this topic as resolved. It's done, yo.

Is there any way to fix this?  The AT&T visual voicemail app is terrible. Whoever thought that was a reasonable think to release should be fired. Why would AT&T put in a bunch of extra work to try to replace an excellent, built-in Google voicemail app with their own inferior version.

If anyone has a way to get back to the default Android voicemail app, please let us know.

---

@cryptykcodec wrote:

Is there any way to fix this?

It’s not “broken”.  

  The AT&T visual voicemail app is terrible. Whoever thought that was a reasonable think to release should be fired. Why would AT&T put in a bunch of extra work to try to replace an excellent, built-in Google voicemail app with their own inferior version.

 

If anyone has a way to get back to the default Android voicemail app, please let us know.

---

Talked it to death 2 months ago.  

No.

Google has the phone set up to work with Fi and Verizon.  

Visual voicemail is a carrier feature, so if your plan allows it, and you aren’t using a carrier android, or have an older AT&T android, then you have to use the ATT VVM app.  

Talked it to death 2 months ago.  

No.

Google has the phone set up to work with Fi and Verizon.  

Visual voicemail is a carrier feature, so if your plan allows it, and you aren’t using a carrier android, or have an older AT&T android, then you have to use the ATT VVM app.  

That's actually not true.  I don't have to use the ATT VVM app!  After I posted, I went and tried to figure out an alternative.  It turns out that it's really easy to setup a Google Voice number and use that for visual voicemail.  It's WAY better than the ATT version.  I'm hopeful that Google will update the default Android dialer to support Google Voice Voicemail in addition to the supported carriers' voicemail offerings.  That would give everyone a path to the integrated voicemail features, rather than relying on the carriers.

I hope that helps anyone else in the same situation.  A couple of reasons to switch from ATT VVM to Google Voice VVM:

- The audio doesn't stop playing 3 seconds into each voicemail

- NLP transcription is way better

- Voicemail alerts are consistent and happen immediately

- You can choose push notifications, SMS, and email alerts/transcriptions

@cryptykcodec

Thats not a solution as people want to use their AT&T number, not some random GV assigned number.  Still wind up using a separate app.  

Thats not a solution as people want to use their AT&T number, not some random GV assigned number.  Still wind up using a separate app.  

With all due respect, I don't think you understand how Google Voice VVM works.  I still use my ATT number.  I never deal with my Google Voice number at all.

Here's how it works:

1) Go get a free Google Voice number.  It doesn't matter what the number is because you'll never use it.

2) Go to the Google Voice Settings -> Phones -> Activate Voicemail for this phone.

3) Paste the command into the dialer app on your phone.

4)  That's it.

Now when people call your ATT phone number and you don't answer, it goes to Google Voice Voicemail.  When they leave a voicemail:

- It alerts you immediately, every time.

- It transcribes really well.

- You can get the transcription notification over push or email if you want.

- You can go listen or read the voicemails in the Google Voice app, which works way better than the ATT VVM app.

- As an added bonus, I can go to the Google Voice website on my laptop and see/listen to my voicemails.

Yes - it's still a separate app than the standard dialer, but it's a WAY better app than ATT VVM.  My comment above was that I hope they add Google Voice Voicemail as a supported voicemail provider in the standard dialer app so I didn't also need to have Google Voice installed, but that's a minor concern.  Now I've uninstalled ATT VVM and everything works way better.

@cryptykcodec

That's pretty clever.  Basically using your own answering machine, only in this case it's Google, and completely bypass ATT voicemail service.

@cryptykcodec

Actually that is clever and a great work around for prepaid android users, as they can’t use visual voicemail.  Thanks for posting the full work around. 

Its probably not going to satisfy the original poster as his issue is the use of the built in VVM not being used.