How to stop iOS from converting voicemail to text messages

THANK YOU. This was helpful, though I'm surprised the route to this setting on the T-Mobile app has changed quite a bit since you posted in January. This is likely because the app changed to "T-Life" now. "Block calls and messages" is the correct place, but the sequence is now:

Open T-Life>"Manage" (bottom right)> Gear Icon (which is actually the "Account" button, top right)>"Permission & controls">"Block calls and messages">"T-Mobile Voicemail to Text Block"

I finally solved this! You have to turn off "Live Voicemail" on ALL of your Apple devices that have the Phone app. If it's turned on on any of them, transcriptions are produced and show up on all of them.

I had already turned off "Live Voicemail" on my iPhone AND made the setting with T-Mobile, but I was STILL getting voicemail transcriptions on my iPhone.

Then I noticed that on my iPad, in the phone app, "Live Voicemail" was still on. When I turned it off there too, the transcriptions stopped.

It seems iOS/iPadOS doesn't synchronize the setting, but does synchronize the transcriptions. That's rather inconsistent.

T-Mobile is notorious for the blame game. Apple isn't sending your voicemail messages in text to you. T-Mobile.

Disclaimer. I'm not a T-Mobile customer. But I did do some research and I saw several T-Mobile complaints about this. I got this from a Google Search and I cannot validate it at all as again, I'm not a T-Mobile customers, be see if this helps you:

"To stop T-Mobile from sending transcriptions of voicemails as text messages on an iPhone, you can disable the feature through your T-Mobile account settings. Go to the T-Mobile app, navigate to the "Account" tab, select "Profile settings," then choose "Block calls and messages" and "Block Other" for the specific line you want to update. Enable the option labeled "T-Mobile Voicemail to Text Block" to prevent the text transcriptions from being sent. Alternatively, if you have the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app installed, you can disable the transcription feature directly within the app's settings under "App Settings". Note that some users have reported that this setting may reset over time, particularly after account changes or updates, requiring reconfiguration."

DavidSzeto wrote:

THANK YOU. This was helpful, though I'm surprised the route to this setting on the T-Mobile app has changed quite a bit since you posted in January. This is likely because the app changed to "T-Life" now. "Block calls and messages" is the correct place, but the sequence is now:

Open T-Life>"Manage" (bottom right)> Gear Icon (which is actually the "Account" button, top right)>"Permission & controls">"Block calls and messages">"T-Mobile Voicemail to Text Block"

Thanks and I'm glad I was able to help you. Plus posting the newer directions will hopefully help others.

Cheers

Your tag line says that you are running iOS 18.

I am running iOS 18, and my iPhone does not convert voicemail to text messages (notifications). It does transcribe voicemail Into text that I can see if I go into the Phone application to look at voicemail - but I do not remember ever having seen that text appear, unsolicited, as a text message. (Then again, I am not a T-Mobile customer.)

Google search results suggest that this is a carrier-specific feature, and Google AI results even mention a couple of T-Mobile-specific settings to try changing (one in T-Mobile's Visual Voicemail App, one in your T-Mobile account on the Web) before calling T-Mobile. However, I have no idea whether these AI results are accurate – or if they merely "sound good", so I'll go with the answer in this Apple Commuities thread.

How to turn off T-Mobile Voicemail to Text on my iPhone 12 – Apple Community

"You need to speak to T-Mobile about this. Turning voicemail into a text message is not an iPhone feature. That is something configured by T-Mobile."

Go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Live Voicemail - turn the switch off.

Ezramon wrote:

Lobster… I gratefully appreciate your input. I just did what was suggested and turned on the "T-Mobile Voicemail to Text Block". I will see if that fixes the problem and inform you & the forum when I do.

thx again.

You're welcome. If what I found fixes this, you'll at least know the T-Mobile person didn't have a clue what they were telling you, which is pretty common with T-Mobile, to be honest. Please do let us know if this works for you.

I have T-Mobile Voicemail to Text Block" on, and I have Live Voicemail disabled, and I am getting transcriptions. Not via text, but in the Apple phone app.

There is most definitely a bug in iOS.

See my longer reply for more detail. If you have an iPad too, you have to turn it off in the Phone app there too, otherwise the transcriptions will still be produced and show up on the phone.