iOS 11 has revamped how the Voicemail tab works in the Phone app, for users who don’t subscribe to Visual Voicemail or have the option from their wireless carriers, such as users on Public Mobile.
Previously, tapping the Voicemail tab along the bottom right would automatically dial to check Voicemail. In iOS 11, one extra step is needed, as users need to tap ‘Call Voicemail’ to dial into their inbox:
Checking voicemail the old way is one of the worst things in life (#firstworldproblems), but at least Public Mobile lets you set it up so you don’t need to punch in your PIN every single time. Once you call in, you can start listening to your messages right away by pressing “1” on your number pad.
Update: As we stated in the first sentence, this extra step is “for users who don’t subscribe to Visual Voicemail or have the option from their wireless carriers, such as users on Public Mobile,” which also applies to other providers such as Koodo, Fido, etc.
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Same with Fido, I don’t have visual voicemail.
And with Rogers, and Bell too from what I can see. Not sure why it’s Public Mobile specific
First sentence: “for users who don’t subscribe to Visual Voicemail or have the option from their wireless carriers, such as users on Public Mobile.”
For Rogers I have to also provide my password after calling Voicemail. Good thing most people text message me.
same with Videotron.
visual voicemail is of no use to me… I get maybe 1-2 message per month. not worth paying more to get this feature (yes videotron is charging for this… it’s not included in their plans)
I have the same experience with Telus
Gods I miss visual voicemail since going over to Public Mobile. Well worth the savings, though.
Honestly I don’t, because get only 1 or 2 voicemails per month, if that.
Why just mention PM in the title. I say this as a PM oracle. Kind of disappointing.
Because PM are the most popular cheap carriers ?
Also because Gary is a PM customer. ;-p
But it makes PM look bad by singling them out.
Never understood why they added this extra step. I had reported it while testing the beta and they didn’t seem to understand the problem. Why make it 2 steps when 1 step worked better in iOS 1 to 10?
I’m with Bell and you have the option to setup to skip the password btw.
Never understood why is this a Carrier feature.. Apple came up with it, they can surely handle it all within icloud or locally on the device… if anything, it sounds like a Greedy Agreement between Apple and select Carriers
In order for it to be an Apple feature, then your phone would either have to “answer” the call itself or forward the call to Apple’s servers. And you could run into problems where your carrier’s default voicemail might kick in before your iPhone’s hypothetical answering machine does.
Voicemail management already existed with the carriers. They already have the systems to redirect the calls and store the messages. Apple worked with them to create visual voicemail, which basically just adds a GUI to the system.
As much as I’d like to save a couple bucks a month, I think this sort of system probably needs to be handled by the carriers.
That said, Apple COULD easily introduce voicemail for FaceTime video and audio calls, since they run over their own servers and don’t rely on any telephone switching system. And it could easily be integrated into the same visual voicemail panel.