[Question] Voicemail download

Dave · Aug 22, 2017

Does anyone know of a way to download and save as a file a voicemail message from an Android phone? I checked with the carrier and all they said was that there are 3rd party apps that will allow this to be done, but declined to name any.

My wife's birthday was Friday. She didn't realize until this morning that her mom had called and left her a happy birthday message. I want to save the message before it gets erased.

Gruebeard · Aug 22, 2017

Dave said:
Does anyone know of a way to download and save as a file a voicemail message from an Android phone? I checked with the carrier and all they said was that there are 3rd party apps that will allow this to be done, but declined to name any.

My wife's birthday was Friday. She didn't realize until this morning that her mom had called and left her a happy birthday message. I want to save the message before it gets erased.

You could hook your phone into the computer, from headphone to mic, and record the voicemail as it plays.

evilmike · Aug 22, 2017

Gruebeard said:
You could hook your phone into the computer, from headphone to mic, and record the voicemail as it plays.

CNET was suggesting using Audacity to do this.

Gruebeard · Aug 22, 2017

evilmike said:
CNET was suggesting using Audacity to do this.

Fancy.

I was just thinking of the basic Windows sound recorder buried somewhere in the OS.

Eriol · Aug 22, 2017

I have never looked, but I would guess that any app that allowed you to record a phone call would do the same, since it's still just a call.

drifter · Aug 22, 2017

I think you can upload to Dropbox, although you may need to convert the file.

strawman · Aug 22, 2017

Many android phones use carrier provided voicemail, and so getting a copy of the actual digital recording may not be possible, but if it is it'll depend on your carrier.

As others have suggested an analog recording using audacity and a male to male cable might be your best bet:

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/3666242/save-voicemails/?source=dam

You should probably do this as a first pass just to get the voicemail while you look at other methods to get a better copy.

PatrThom · Aug 22, 2017

Well, it's actually quite easy. You just...

Dave said:
Android phone

...oh, uh, never mind. The M2M cable via analog is probably the simplest, though you might be able to do some finagling to record it via some sort of Bluetooth device if you absolutely have to have it in digital form.

--Patrick

figmentPez · Aug 23, 2017

AT&T's Visual Voicemail app allows you to save voicemail as a file. So it's definitely possible on Android, at least with certain carriers.