Can I turn off my iPhone's voicemail transcriptions in iOS 17?

Goodness gracious I was looking for this and I’m glad (not really) it’s not only me. The thing that’s bothersome is that it freezes up the phone. I use and receive voice messages under certain contexts when a text won’t cut it and/or a phone call isn’t available. But it it stops me from using the messages app for an unknown amount of time. Even if it’s just reading another message. I’d like to be able to turn that off too.

Drumwiz wrote:

This is a big privacy concern to me. Is Apple sending people’s voice iMessages to some service that is transcribing them? There should really be an option to turn this off in any case.

No, Apple is not using a third-party to do this.

Here_we-go wrote:

It is supposed to be transcribing the message from audio to text inside your phone. Not being sent somewhere else for transcription. It’s basically like using the dictation input to type text in the built in keyboard or using a Siri audio command. The phone recognizes what is being said.

Yes, I know. Thanks.

We should be able to disable this feature. Transcripts are not fully accurate, e.g. I say 'It's Dan' to my friend who's recently lost her father. The transcript says 'Hello, it's dad'. This is so stupid Apple, and causes hurt. It needs to be fixed urgently.

slickem1 wrote:

why would you put transcriptions on a voice text. The reason we send a voice text is to have people hear our voice. If we wanted it transcribed we would have just sent a regular text...

Because some people hate it when you send voice texts. Or, they want to know what you said but are in a noisy place or somewhere where they don't want other people to hear your messages. Or they are hard of hearing and it's easier to read than listen. Or reading a text is just faster.

My friends and I use them all the time because we are busy mums and work full

time and don’t get a chance to catch each other much. Text messages don’t capture the essence of telling a story wholly and you can catch up on stories when you have downtime or while doing things. You can come back to the story later if needed. It’s a flexible option for maintaining social relationships when you’re a busy person!

why would I send an audio instead of a text message? Well, think about this. My grandchildren would like to hear Mammy's voice. And the younger one can't even read yet, so a text message sure is useless in some instances.

kitty-beth wrote:

why would I send an audio instead of a text message? Well, think about this. My grandchildren would like to hear Mammy's voice. And the younger one can't even read yet, so a text message sure is useless in some instances.

You might wish to look up the meaning of "rhetorical question."

Well just trying to shed some light on why some people like to use audio messages sometimes as you said you never understood why people use them.

I absolutely hate that we can't turn this off. My daughter hit a button once and an entire conversation was sent.

I love this. And excellent point w how much someone is feeling can factor into the way that they read and interpret a text.

Turn Live Voicemail on or off

1. Open the Settings app, then tap Phone.
2. Tap Live Voicemail.
3. Turn Live Voicemail on or off.

In iOS 17 and later, Live Voicemail is on by default.

..

Smh. Was obv to cgrimes87 as they’re referring to the very glitchy dictation we now have in iMessage voice w ioS 17, not voicemail like the op posted about.

This is a big privacy concern to me. Is Apple sending people’s voice iMessages to some service that is transcribing them? There should really be an option to turn this off in any case.