How can I delay voicemail picking up if iPhone is turned off?

Question

I apologize if this has been asked and answered a hundred times but the new format of the forums precludes any kind of effective searching, so here it goes:

I have a digital phone in my house (an OOMA) and when someone dials the number, it's set to ring both the house phone and my AT*T iPhone at the same time. This works really well as the call can be answered on either phone. Unfortunately, if the iPhone is turned off or otherwise indisposed, AT*T voicemail will pick up immediately and the digital phone will never ring.

Is there a way to delay, but not eliminate, voicemail from picking up on an AT*T iPhone when the phone is turned off?

GeekBoy · Answer

@marcindublin wrote:I apologize if this has been asked and answered a hundred times but the new format of the forums precludes any kind of effective searching, so here it goes: I have a digital phone in my house (an OOMA) and when someone dials the number, it's set to ring both the house phone and my AT*T iPhone at the same time. This works really well as the call can be answered on either phone. Unfortunately, if the iPhone is turned off or otherwise indisposed, AT*T voicemail will pick up immediately and the digital phone will never ring. Is there a way to delay, but not eliminate, voicemail from picking up on an AT*T iPhone when the phone is turned off?  I know there are ways to delay voice mail from answering if your phone rings, but I am not aware of any way to delay the forwading to voice mail when your cell phone is unvailable without completely disabling your cell voice mail. Depending upon your cell phone model, the UI may have a way to change the 'call forwarding' feature used for sending calls to voice mail.  If you are an 'old school' person, you can generally query the settings by dialing '*#61#' from your cell phone and if it is a smart phone it should display all the call forwarding settings for your phone.  There are ways of changing some of those setings with another similar dial code, but you really need to make sure that you know what you want before you go changing those things because it may impact all your incoming calls.