# Killing, forever, a built in "perk" on my phone **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874 "2025-12-19T23:43:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/1 "2025-12-19T23:43:03Z")
Voicemail. How do I murder without reservation this _thang._ This is my sooper seekrit (shhh) Motorola burner. No one uses the number to contact me. (Welp, because the number is seekrit too). I get calls from somewhere. I disabled the ringer so I don’t hear the ring. The built in(I guess) voicemail picks them up. So I get loads of notifications that I have voicemail. Drives me batty. How do I do this? Like I’m 5 yo. IOW, simply. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/2 "2025-12-19T23:46:23Z")
Call whoever your cell phone is through (ie Verizon, Cricket) and ask them to shut it off. Otherwise shut off the notifications for it so you don’t get alerted to it. I suppose another option would be to call yourself and leave yourself a bunch of messages until the mailbox is full, then leave them there. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/3 "2025-12-19T23:54:38Z")
Oh. I forgot it will fill up, eventually. I’ll wait awhile. Thanks so much. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/4 "2025-12-20T02:57:07Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > because the number is seekrit too Last four digits are two popular gun calibers. First three can be easily remembered by a famous Levi’s Jean (with some simple math). Of couse the Area code is from 1963. You’re Welcome! 😄 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/5 "2025-12-20T04:56:55Z")
It may not. My phone seems to have infinite space for voice mails. At any rate, I’ve never deleted one. Are all the calls from the same (or a few) numbers, or from lots of numbers? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/6 "2025-12-20T13:08:15Z")
My iPhone will definitely fill up and not allow any more voice mails at some point. At least the old ones did a few years ago because it’s never happened again. In my experience, people are leaving way fewer voice mails than in the past incidentally. When you delete a voice mail on an iPhone, it moves it to a “deleted voicemail” folder which isn’t really deleted. You have to go to that folder and really delete them. I didn’t realize that and it eventually filled up. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/7 "2025-12-20T13:30:41Z")
One way to get fewer voicemails from spammers is to have a longer greeting. The longer the greeting, the greater chance that the spammer’s call will hang up before the beep. This won’t eliminate all of them, but it will help reduce the number of blank voicemails from those spammer calls. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/8 "2025-12-20T17:38:20Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Last four digits are two popular gun calibers. First three can be easily remembered by a famous Levi’s Jean (with some simple math). Of couse the Area code is from 1963. I called 501-3845 but she didn’t pick up. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/9 "2025-12-20T18:16:52Z")
You might have left her a voicemail message. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/10 "2025-12-20T18:19:33Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I called 501-3845 but she didn’t pick up. But did it go to voicemail? Seriously now, there must be a way to disable voicemail for your carrier, at least in my experience with different providers (all in Germany though, that could make a difference). There are usually two ways to alter settings, either by sending a service code via the phone app, or through the settings in the app provided by your carrier. Google [“name of carrier]+disabling voicemail”, or tell us your carrier, and probably we can sort it out. ETA: I just remembered a third possible way: call the number of your voicemail and work your way through the menu to disable it. This also worked a couple of times for me. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/11 "2025-12-20T18:28:59Z")
The thing about phone numbers is that if you get _just one_ digit wrong, it fails! ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/12 "2025-12-20T19:41:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > if you get _just one_ digit wrong, it fails! It often succeeds, if you want to talk to strangers. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/13 "2025-12-20T20:00:26Z")
It sounds like the real annoyance is just the notification that you got a voicemail. I mean, who cares if they waste their time leaving a message you’ll never hear? Just look up how to turn it off for your model, or type in the model stuff here and maybe someone else will. As for voicemail: the only way I could see it being infinite is if voicemail you don’t explicitly save eventually gets removed. Regardless, this will be based on how your cell phone provider works, and has nothing to do with your phone. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/14 "2025-12-20T20:12:27Z")
Who is your cell provider? Most providers have support for a Visual Voicemail app. That’s an app that you put on your phone and it allows you to play voicemails in the app without calling voicemail. Some providers will also support voicemail transcription. That app makes it a lot easier to manage spammy voicemails. Do a google search for “Visual Voicemail yourcellprovider” and you should get a link to download the app for your provider. For your issue of not wanting voicemail, you can configure the app to not send notifications. That way it will receive the voicemail notification from the provider, but it won’t put it on the screen or make an audio alert. Once you have a voicemail app on your Android phone, here’s how you can suppress the notifications: - Press and hold your finger on the voicemail app icon until the popup menu is shown. - One option should be “App Info”. Click on it - The app info settings screen for the voicemail app should come up. - Click on “Notifications” - Turn off all notification settings That should suppress the voicemail notifications. If you ever need to listen to the messages, you can bring up the app and it should have the messages. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/15 "2025-12-20T20:30:28Z")
One of the best things I didn’t do was to set up voice mail on my phone. Email me or text me and I’ll eventually get to it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/16 "2025-12-20T20:50:04Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It sounds like the real annoyance is just the notification that you got a voicemail. I mean, who cares if they waste their time leaving a message you’ll never hear? Just look up how to turn it off for your model, or type in the model stuff here and maybe someone else will. But someone who is able to leave a message is going to be confused or unhappy when you don’t respond to it. Better to disable the ability to leave messages at all. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/17 "2025-12-20T21:02:31Z")
In the case of the OP, ISTM the phone is intended for transmit only. So 100% of incoming callers are mistakes trying to talk to somebody else. Or are spam trying to talk to any/everyone stupid enough to respond. No harm whatever in either of that category of caller leaving a voicemail in a bit bucket where it’s never listened to or acted on. Back when my Aged MIL was still alive, she got a mobile phone pretty late in life. And also wanted it solely for outgoing calls. So, with her permission, I recorded her voicemail greeting as me stating firmly, bordering on harshly, that this voicemail was inactive and any message left will _never_ be listened to. A few years previously she switched from a POTS telephone line plus conventional answering machine to a VOIP phone line that (of course) included voicemail that could not be disabled. She still wanted to use her old trusty, easy to operate (read “familiar”) answering machine. So I did the same thing with that VOIP voicemail. Any good actor _should_ take the anti-greeting to heart & not leave a message, nor expect a response. Any bad actor or accidental caller? Who cares what they do or whether that harms their interests somehow? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/18 "2025-12-20T21:18:38Z")
Yes, in case there’s any chance of an actual friend or relative calling the line, it would be polite to set up a message saying “the phone allows you to leave a message, but no one will ever listen to it. Contact me some other way if you want to reach me” It, if the chance if that is zero, don’t bother. > [@BigT](#): > > As for voicemail: the only way I could see it being infinite is if voicemail you don’t explicitly save eventually gets removed. I’m sure my voicemail isn’t actually infinite, but last time i looked, there were hundreds of messages there, and i don’t get many voicemails, so it’s probably all the messages I’ve ever gotten. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/19 "2025-12-20T21:48:48Z")
Yeah, I was taking her literally when she said “no one uses the number to contact me”. If there are people who actually know it, who aren’t just scammers calling a random number, a message wouldn’t hurt. I could also see a “if you were trying to reach a person, you have called the wrong number” info. Wrong numbers are rarer in these cell phone days, but they still happen. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874/20 "2025-12-20T21:54:32Z")
When i bought a burner phone, i got a lot of wrong numbers. I think they were real people trying to reach the guy who used to have that number. I mean, maybe some were scammers, but I’m pretty sure some were real. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-forever-a-built-in-perk-on-my-phone/1025874.md?page=2)