For a downloadable Quick Reference Guide to the voicemail phone menu, click here.
Set up Visual Voicemail. If your carrier supports Visual Voicemail, you can set it up with these steps: Go to the Phone app, then tap the Voicemail tab. Tap Set Up Now. Create a voicemail password, then tap Done. Enter your password again to confirm it, then tap Done. Select Custom or Default. If you choose Custom, you can record a new greeting.

With this method, you don’t need a third-party app. Call the person you want to chat with, then tap the “Add Call” button on your phone’s screen. Dial your own phone number—the one you’re calling from. This will take you to your voicemail. Once your voicemail has started recording, tap the “Merge Calls” button on your screen. Now, you’ll record your phone conversation onto a voicemail message. When you’re done with the call, you can tap the share button to export it to your Mac via Airdrop, to the Voice Memos app, or transfer it via email or text message. The file is recorded as an M4A, so depending on what you want to do with it, you may need to convert it to MP3 before uploading it to other apps.
Apple Visual Voicemail requires an active data connection to work. If this is unavailable, you can still retrieve your voicemail messages by dialing the standard voicemail number.