Rogers Does Not Support iPhone Live Voicemail Properly

[Paul_M]

Rogers locks down even unlocked phones when it comes to Live Voicemail. They do not allow custom greetings. This is because the Rogers does not support custom greetings for Live Voicemail. Will Rogers unlock custom greetings for people using IOS17+? 

[RogersZia]

Good evening @Paul_M,

Live Voicemail is definitely a great new feature. This feature will automatically use your existing voicemail greeting. If you do not have one set up, it will use a Live Voicemail default greeting.

If any new features are introduced within Live Voicemail, we will keep the Community posted!

Just as a reminder, this feature is not available if the device is out of cellular coverage or while roaming.

RogersZia

[mrojze]

When is this becoming available for Rogers customer?

I am running under all requirements.

[RogersYasmine]

Hello @mrojze ,

Can you please clarify, is the service not working for you at all? Or is there a specific issue you are having when trying to utilize it? Are you using a non-Rogers iPhone?

As mentioned by @RogersZia above, Live Voicemail will only kick in if you do not already have an existing voicemail greeting. If the issue you are having is something different, please specify for us. 

Thank you,

RogersYasmine

[andrewmorrow]

@RogersYasmine “Live Voicemail will only kick in if you do not already have an existing voicemail greeting” - that’s not what I’m seeing: I have Rogers voicemail set up with a custom greeting on Rogers’ servers (“Hi, you’ve reached Andrew. Please leave a message.”). If someone calls my iPhone now on iOS 17, my iPhone picks up the call and speaks Apple’s generic  greeting (“The person you are trying to reach is not available. …”) and goes on to record & transcribe the caller. Since Rogers Voicemail is no longer involved - Apple Live Voicemail apparently picks up the call before it times out and gets handled by Rogers Voicemail - I’d like to setup a custom greeting on my iPhone but Settings > Phone > Live Voicemail only provides an enable/disable option; there’s no “Custom Greeting” button. Is something in Rogers carrier config suppressing the button? Is Live Voicemail supposed to transfer the Rogers greeting to my iPhone? (when? how?)

[Paul_M]

I have a standard voicemail plan and no, Live Voicemail does not pick up that greeting. Based on articles I have read, Live voicemail uses an on-device greeting which can only be modified if the wireless provider allows it. The "custom greeting" selection is missing from the voicemail menu, which means Rogers does not fully support Live Voicemail. 

I phoned Rogers support about getting a visual voicemail plan instead, but the person I talked to was unhelpful.

[RogersMoin]

Greetings!

@andrewmorrow & @Paul_M: It's strange that Live Voicemail is not using your existing custom greeting. For testing purposes, can you please disable Live Voicemail and check if your custom greeting still works?

@Paul_M: are you still looking to add Visual Voicemail? We can help. Please send us a private message at @CommunityHelps. You can find details about our private messaging in this blog.

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[andrewmorrow]

@RogersMoin If I Settings > Phone > Live Voicemail > disable and call from a landline, I get my prerecorded Rogers custom greeting. If I moments later enable Live Voicemail and call again, I get the default Apple Live Voicemail greeting.

[usernamer213423]

Yeah I am also seeing this exact same issue. There is no way to change your live voicemail greeting in iOS17, because this feature only exists if the carrier supports it and looks like Rogers doesn't support it.

[tf_compton]

I just received my iPhone 15 Pro Max (ordered Sept 23), and I can’t seem to find any settings for live voicemail, I’m on 17.3… I went to the phone app and switched my greeting to default as I saw some suggest.

How do I enable it?
What scenarios should it work in or conditions for it to work properly?

[Paul_M]

It's under Settings -> Phone

If you have regular voicemail service with Rogers, it only works when your phone is on and is able to receive calls. Otherwise calls go to your regular voicemail. 

Changing the voicemail greeting would normally be available inside the phone application under the voicemail tab. 

[ddn2003]

I have Visual Voicemail using the default greeting, but Live Voicemail is not working. I press the Go to Voicemail button but get nothing.

[RogersYasmine]

Hello @ddn2003 ,

Thanks for your post! I'm sorry to hear that your Live Voicemail feature isn't working on your iPhone at the moment. In order for it to work successfully, please take note of the following:

- Must be using model XR or above

- Must have iOS 17 or above

- You must be located in one of our coverage areas

- Only the English language is compatible with this service at this time

If the above checks out, please try some of the following workarounds:

1. Check if Low Power Mode is ‘ON’ under: Settings> Battery> Low Power Mode
2. Toggle Airplane Mode on and off, then retest
3. Reboot Device and retest
4. Refer to Apple Support 

If still no luck, kindly send us a PM @CommunityHelps so we can investigate the matter further for you.

Thank you!

RogersYasmine

[vtecman]

Same here. The exact same scenario as described by Andrewmorrow above.

[Pauly · Accepted solution]

My family members has an iPhone on Rogers with Live Voicemail,  it is working Correctly and exactly as advertised.

Think of it as TWO distinct voicemail boxes, one is a voicemail located on the NETWORK, which takes your messages even when your phone is off or out of service coverage area, the other is basically think of it as a mini robot on your phone which ANSWERS your call and plays a generic apple greeting to the caller, and records and transcribes the call and stores it on the phones hard  drive.

Because you have two voicemails, you have to learn how to differentiate from them.  you can still use your rogers built in voicemail by pressing and holding the 1 key and enter your voicemail password and go in and change your greeting as you would, but I do not think you can change the apple live voicemail greeting

hope this helps, this is all the answers to all your questions, there should be nothing unanswered.

Hope this helps

[vtecman]

Definitely a good overview but conflicts with what RogersZia said above.

“ Live Voicemail is definitely a great new feature. This feature will automatically use your existing voicemail greeting. If you do not have one set up, it will use a Live Voicemail default greeting.”

This is incorrect. Default greeting is not used when live voicemail picks up.

My default voicemail picks up way too often when I’m in a fully covered urban area. If I don’t manually send the caller to voicemail, Rogers pick it up. So live vm for me only works if I flush the call to vm. If I’m not at my phone the Rogers one picks up.

[Pauly]

With Live VM enabled, when you press the red hangup button during an incoming call, it does NOT send to Rogers voicemail, it sends to Apple Live voicemail, Rogers network treats this as an answered call, since it technically is, your phone is answering it and the robot is playing the message to the caller.

[vtecman]

And if you don’t press the vm button, it’s a crapshoot. It might get caught by live vm or it may move to Roger’s vm.

[FFF6]

My issue is that I do have a custom voicemail set up in my regular voicemail, but for example, this morning, my friend called and I couldn’t answer so I let it ring, and she said she just got an automated voice and not my Custom voicemail. When the message came in, it was in the Rogers live Mailbox so I could read it and listen to it but I’ve heard from many people that they are not getting my Custom voicemail message.

[57]

I have a Rogers PAYGo (Pre-Paid) plan and have had Rogers Voicemail disabled since day one of my plan almost 15 years ago.  I did this to avoid being charged for incoming calls leaving messages and then for me retrieving those messages.  

I was therefore surprised to see the Voicemail indicator on my phone the other day since I had never seen it before.  It was in a foreign language and the transcription made no sense.  I also saw a charge for an incoming call in my transaction history.  I have an iPhone SE 2020 and I guess this only started with a recent iOS update.   

I never answer incoming calls as my phone is only for real emergencies and since I only get spam calls on my cell (I use my home phone for all calls).  Since I don't want VM and the associated charges on my Pre-Paid account, I have turned Live VM off in the phone's settings.  I hope this takes me back to no VMs and no charges.

[Pauly]

It was reported that this feature was included in the new apple I operating system that the phones downloaded.  The feature was enabled by default too, so if you did not want this feature, you would have to go into the settings and manually turn it off.

A lot of people don't even know that the apple robot is answering their calls and they are still used to checking their wireless carrier voicemail and its telling them no new messages.

Also its been noted that if u leave apple live voicemail on, when it takes a message it uses up airtime since its answering your call and the robot is talking to the caller thus if u do not want to use airtime, turn off this feature