Activate Visual Voicemail on iphones

getbe29

Dear Giff Gaff

Please Activate the visual voicemail function on iphones. I have contacted giffgaff support who has confirmed that giff gaff disable that feature (which is a standard feature on an iphone with every other network I have been with).

For any poor giff gaff users who have only had an iphone whilst on giff gaff trust me you guys are missing out, you should not have to dial in for your voicemail wasting your time! Visual voicemail lets you see a list so you can see who they are from when and play stop start at will so much better, no need to listen to those 3 sales calls to get the message your mum left you yesterday, you can just see which one is from your mum!

endorphin

Sorry @getbe29 but other users have asked for visual voicemail to be implemented but so far giffgaff have not done so. Don't hold your breath!

freedmaniac

@getbe29

I am one of those people that you mention.

i agree that this would be a very helpful addition.

Why not post it in the New Ideas part of Labs and see what support it gets?

dave99

@getbe29 wrote:

Dear Giff Gaff

Please Activate the visual voicemail function on iphones. I have contacted giffgaff support who has confirmed that giff gaff disable that feature (which is a standard feature on an iphone with every other network I have been with).

For any poor giff gaff users who have only had an iphone whilst on giff gaff trust me you guys are missing out, you should not have to dial in for your voicemail wasting your time! Visual voicemail lets you see a list so you can see who they are from when and play stop start at will so much better, no need to listen to those 3 sales calls to get the message your mum left you yesterday, you can just see which one is from your mum!

I think it's unlikely to happen as it's only available on EE and o2, and both only offer it to their contract customers.

getbe29

I have had visual voicemail with O2, Orange, EE and vodaphone. As far as I am aware visual voicemail is a standard feature with an iphone that giffgaff have chosen to disable.

ip633

@getbe29 wrote:

I have had visual voicemail with O2, Orange, EE and vodaphone. As far as I am aware visual voicemail is a standard feature with an iphone that giffgaff have chosen to disable.

I don’t think that’s the case. It’s more likely that they’re just unable to offer that service at present. The following link from Apple explains which services are available to each carrier:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204040

There’s a lot of information to scroll through, but the relevant section for giffgaff is as follows:

giffgaff

FaceTime over Cellular1

LTE

Personal Hotspot2

Advanced Mobile Location (AML)7

And just for a comparison, this is what their parent network is able to offer:

FaceTime over Cellular1

LTE

Personal Hotspot2

Unlocking2

Visual Voicemail

VoLTE

Wi-Fi Calling

Advanced Mobile Location (AML)7

I suspect that this is more about the costs involved in implementing all of those services, rather than any technical difficulties, and as giffgaff is essentially O2’s budget offering, maybe that’s why their customers seem to fare better (it’s a similar situation with BT Mobile and EE).

Sometimes you get what you pay for :smileyindifferent:

Edit: to add clarification.

dave99

@getbe29 wrote:

I have had visual voicemail with O2, Orange, EE and vodaphone. As far as I am aware visual voicemail is a standard feature with an iphone that giffgaff have chosen to disable.

Vodafone does not offer visual voicemail, and Orange is now EE.

It is not a standard feature offered by all networks and actually takes extra equipment for the network to offer it.

As I already said, it is only offered by EE and o2 (and it seems Sky must have paid o2 to add the feature for their customers).

it is not offered by any other network or virtual network.

getbe29

Thanks for clarifying, I swear I had visual voicemail all the time I have had an iphone (which is many years now) and I had it with Orange for sure I am 100% certain of that, although that was a few years ago same with vodaphone (even longer ago). So if you are correct (which you probably are). Then I know they did used to have it because I personally did have visual voicemail whilst I was with those networks, hence my surprise when not having it with giff gaff as I have always had it before all the time I had an iphone. I know I was with Orange as I used to get the orange wednesdays offers (2 for 2 cinema) at the time and had visual voicemail then. So maybe it was removed at some point after I had moved away from Orange (I went EE next which had it and then O2 before going to giff gaff).

I now intend to leave giff gaff for this exact reason (my time is worth more than the small extra cost per month), So this has been very helpful information to me as really if you are correct I should only consider O2, EE or Sky.

Many thanks for your help.

dave99

@getbe29

Vodafone categorically NEVER had visual voicemail.

Orange did have visual voicemail, that is why EE (Orange merged with T-Mobile and became EE) now has visual voicemail.

The only networks ever to have visual voicemail are o2 and EE (and Sky is the only mvno).

giffg00328

Agreed - effectively they do not fully support the iPhone because of this... Tried GiffGaff, now moving on...