You can disable voicemail on iPhone through your carrier's settings or by turning off the feature in your phone's settings
Voicemail on iPhone works through your carrier — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or another provider — not through Apple itself. This means you have two ways to disable it: you can turn off the voicemail feature in your iPhone's Phone app, or you can contact your carrier to deactivate voicemail on your account entirely. The first method is faster and reversible. The second is more permanent and stops callers from reaching your voicemail at all.
Most people who want to disable voicemail do so because they don't check it, prefer text or email, or want to avoid the notification badge on their Phone app. If that's your situation, turning off the feature in your settings is usually enough. If you want to prevent callers from leaving messages altogether — which some people do for privacy or business reasons — you'll need to contact your carrier.
Key Takeaways
- You can disable voicemail notifications in your iPhone's Phone app settings without contacting your carrier, and you can turn it back on anytime.
- To fully deactivate voicemail so callers cannot leave messages, you must contact your carrier by phone, text, or their app.
- Disabling voicemail notifications does not delete existing voicemail messages — they remain on your carrier's servers until you manually delete them.
- If you turn off voicemail and then turn it back on, your old messages will still be there.
- Some carriers charge a monthly fee for voicemail; disabling it through your carrier account may remove that charge.
Disable voicemail notifications in your iPhone settings
This method turns off the voicemail notification badge and alert on your phone, but does not prevent callers from leaving messages. Open the Phone app, tap the Voicemail tab at the bottom right, and look for a Greeting or Settings option — the exact wording varies by carrier. Tap it, then look for an option to disable or turn off voicemail. Some carriers show this as a toggle; others show it as a "Disable Voicemail" button.
If you don't see a settings option in the Voicemail tab, go to Settings > Phone > Voicemail and toggle off "Voicemail" if that option appears. Not all carriers display this toggle, so if it's not there, your carrier may require you to call to disable voicemail fully. After you disable notifications, you won't see the red badge on the Phone app icon, and you won't receive alerts when someone leaves a message.
Contact your carrier to deactivate voicemail completely
If you want to prevent callers from reaching your voicemail at all, you need to contact your carrier directly. Call your carrier's customer service number — it's on your bill or on their website — and ask to deactivate voicemail on your account. You may need to provide your phone number and account information to verify your identity.
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all allow you to deactivate voicemail by phone, through their mobile apps, or through their websites. Verizon customers can also text "STPVM" to 7777 to stop voicemail. When you deactivate voicemail through your carrier, callers will hear a message saying the voicemail box is not set up, and they won't be able to leave a message. This change usually takes effect within a few minutes to an hour.
What happens to your existing voicemail messages
Disabling voicemail does not automatically delete messages you've already received. They remain stored on your carrier's servers. If you disable voicemail notifications in your iPhone settings, you can still access your messages by opening the Voicemail tab in the Phone app — they just won't trigger alerts. If you deactivate voicemail through your carrier, you may lose access to those messages, depending on your carrier's policy.
Before you deactivate voicemail through your carrier, listen to any messages you want to keep and save them. You can do this by opening the Voicemail tab, tapping a message, and tapping the share icon to send it to yourself as a voice memo or email. Some carriers let you access old voicemail through their website or app for a limited time after deactivation, so check with your carrier about their retention policy.
Turn voicemail back on if you change your mind
If you disabled voicemail notifications in your iPhone settings, you can turn them back on the same way: open the Phone app, tap Voicemail, find the settings option, and toggle voicemail back on. Your old messages will still be there. If you deactivated voicemail through your carrier, call them back and ask to reactivate it. This usually takes a few minutes to process.
Some carriers charge a monthly fee for voicemail service. If you deactivated voicemail through your carrier to remove that charge, reactivating it may restore the fee to your bill. Check with your carrier about whether voicemail is included in your plan or costs extra before you reactivate.
Why you might want to disable voicemail
The most common reason people disable voicemail is that they don't use it. If you prefer text messages, email, or missed call notifications, voicemail becomes clutter. Disabling notifications removes the red badge on your Phone app and stops you from seeing "Voicemail" alerts that you'll never act on. This is especially useful if you get a lot of spam calls and don't want to see voicemail notifications from them.
Some people disable voicemail for privacy reasons — they don't want to store voice messages on their carrier's servers, or they want to make it harder for someone to access their account through a voicemail hack. Others disable it because they're trying to reduce their phone bill and their carrier charges for voicemail separately. Disabling the feature through your carrier is the only way to remove that charge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will people know I've disabled voicemail?
If you only disabled notifications in your iPhone settings, callers can still leave messages — they just won't trigger alerts on your phone. If you deactivated voicemail through your carrier, callers will hear a message saying your voicemail is not set up, so they'll know you don't have voicemail active.
Can I disable voicemail for specific contacts?
No. Voicemail is an account-level feature controlled by your carrier, not by individual contacts. You can silence notifications from specific people by muting them in your Contacts app, but that doesn't prevent them from leaving voicemail.
Does disabling voicemail affect my ability to receive calls?
No. Disabling voicemail only stops people from leaving messages. Calls will still ring through to your phone, and you can still answer them or let them go to a missed call notification.
What if I disabled voicemail and now I can't turn it back on?
If you disabled it through your carrier and can't reactivate it yourself, call your carrier's customer service. They can reactivate voicemail on your account. It usually takes a few minutes to process.
Does my carrier charge for voicemail?
Most carriers include voicemail in your plan at no extra cost, but some older plans or certain carriers may charge a monthly fee. Check your bill or contact your carrier to learn about you're being charged for voicemail.