How to use voicemail transcription on your iPhone, so you can read voicemails instead of listening to them

You won't be able to check a voicemail if you're in a meeting, at the library, or somewhere else where you can't take a call.

Thankfully, there's an iPhone feature that allows you to quickly get a message without having to listen to it.

You can use voicemails on your phone.

How to turn on iPhone voicemail transcriptions

This feature is turned on if your carrier provides voicemails.

If visual voicemail is listed under your carrier, you can check this list to see if it's there.

It's a good idea to only use visual voicemail on the iPhone 6s or later.

This is the first thing. Go to the Voicemail tab and open the phone app.

There are two If the voicemail hasn't been transcribed before, you'll see the message "Transcribing Voicemail..." as it loads.

There are three. The transcript should show up in a few moments.

There are four. You should see the transcription when you tap on it. If the software can't make out what the speaker is saying, there may be some blanks.

Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider

There are five. If you want to share the transcription, tap to select a portion and then tap copy or share.

If visual voicemail isn't working, you should check out our article on how to fix it.