Visual voicemail is a method for people to interact with their voicemail messages from their smartphone with options for playback and deletion.

In 2007, Apple famously made visual voicemail into the mainstream in the iPhone. Their press release articulated its benefit for consumers, "Visual Voicemail makes voicemail as fast and convenient as email by allowing users to go directly to any of their voice messages without listening to any of the prior messages." Since then, the VVM feature made its way to Android in 2015.

Virtual voicemail adopts many of the benefits of visual voicemail except that it applies to business phone calls. For instance, voicemails can be left from the auto attendant system, and users can forward voicemail messages to colleagues, and use different voicemail greetings. Also, virtual phone numbers can direct messages to one or more voicemail boxes.

You don't need a separate visual voicemail service to keep track of your messages. With a cloud-based phone provider like Nextiva, your voicemail service is built-in to every calling plan.

For your computer, you can use a free business phone app that provides instant access to your voicemail inbox, as well as a ton of other advanced features.

If you have call forwarding, you can listen to voicemails on your iPhone or Android by opening the Phone app and tapping the voicemail icon.

Nextiva includes virtual voicemail at no extra charge with its award-winning Business Phone Service. Voicemail messages can be automatically directed to different email addresses and attach the audio file as a WAV file.

Other virtual voicemail services charge between $4-10 monthly per phone line. This cost adds up fast and is cost-prohibitive for a small business.

Traditional voicemail services require you to call voicemail, enter a voicemail password, and listen to your messages one-by-one. Visual voicemail (VVM) lets you see all your messages at once.

Nextiva offers five different ways to listen to your voicemail messages.

From the primary VoIP phone:

• Dial *86.
• Enter the PIN followed by the # key.
• Press 1 to access the voice mailbox and listen to messages.

From an external phone:

• Dial your phone number.
• When the voicemail greeting plays, press the * key.
• Enter the PIN followed by the # key.
• Press 1 to access the voice mailbox and listen to messages.

From the NextivaONE App

• Open the NextivaONE App.
• Click on the phone handset icon (third from the top).
• Click the Voicemail tab.
• You can play and manage your voicemails by clicking on them.

Email notifications

If you've configured the voicemail-to-email feature, you can listen to voicemail messages from your email inbox anywhere you have access to your email.

• Open your preferred email client.
• Look for an email from [email protected] that contains the subject line that starts with "Voice Message from."
• Double-click the attached WAV audio file to listen to the message.

Online voice dashboard

• Sign in to the Nextiva Voice Portal.
• Look along the left side of the screen. Below your name, you can play and manage voicemail messages.
• For more options, click View All.

You can also receive voicemail transcription in your email or as a text message. Contact Nextiva Support to activate your voicemail to email or text service.