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How to change your voicemail greeting on iPhone

Your voicemail greeting is what callers hear when you don't pick up. You record it yourself, in your own voice, in about a minute.

In short

In Phone, open your voicemail (Voicemails or the Voicemail tab), tap Edit › Edit Voicemail Greeting or Greeting, choose a custom greeting and record it. Without Visual Voicemail, call your voicemail (press and hold 1) and follow the voice menu.

Good to know

Your greeting is stored by your carrier, and only your iPhone, with your voice, can change it. iOS doesn't let any app do it, or import an audio file instead: not Phone Ringtones, not any other app.

With Visual Voicemail (iOS 26 and later)

Visual Voicemail is the list of your voicemails in the Phone app. If the app offers Set Up Voicemail, it isn't turned on yet: do that first, setup asks you to record your greeting anyway. In iOS 26, the Phone app has two layouts, Unified and Classic, and voicemail isn't in the same place.

  1. Open the Phone app.
  2. In the Unified layout: tap the filter button at the top right, then Voicemails. In Classic: the Voicemail tab at the bottom.
  3. Tap Edit at the top left, then Edit Voicemail Greeting (in Classic, tap Greeting at the top left instead).
  4. Choose a custom greeting instead of the default one, start recording and speak. Stop, play it back, try again if you like, then save at the top right.

Can't find the greeting in Unified? The same button at the top right switches to Classic, where the Voicemail tab still has its Greeting button.

Before iOS 26

  1. Open Phone, Voicemail tab, bottom right.
  2. Tap Greeting, at the top left.
  3. Choose a custom greeting, record, play it back, then save at the top right.

Without Visual Voicemail: call your voicemail

If your carrier doesn't offer Visual Voicemail, you change the greeting over the phone, in your voicemail's voice menu.

  1. In Phone › Keypad, press and hold the 1 key: with most carriers, your iPhone calls your voicemail. If not, dial your carrier's voicemail number.
  2. Listen to the menu until you reach the greeting options, and press the number it gives you.
  3. Choose a personal greeting, speak after the beep, then confirm as the menu tells you.

The menu is different from one carrier to the next: the first time, listen to the end before pressing anything.

Greeting ideas

Keep it short, 10 to 15 seconds, and say your name: callers know right away they've got the right number.

What about the ringtone?

The greeting is what your callers hear; the ringtone is what you hear. To change that one: Change your iPhone ringtone, or a different ringtone for one contact.

The easy way: Phone Ringtones

Pick a video, pick your part, install it. Free, on iPhone.

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The Phone Ringtones editor, with its row of effects

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