Setup and manage MessageBank on your mobile
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MessageBank
MessageBank is Telstra's voicemail and provides a personal answering service if a phone line is busy or can’t be answered. Callers are greeted with your own personal greeting and then asked to leave a message.
If you'd prefer to send your incoming calls to another number so you don’t miss a call, you can use our call forwarding service.
You can also extend your ring time, so you have more time to answer the phone before your calls reach MessageBank®.
If you're having trouble with MessageBank, find out how to fix an issue with voicemail. If you want help with voicemail on your home phone, learn how to setup and manage MessageBank for home and business.
How do I manage MessageBank?
Our Upfront plans have MessageBank activated as a default.
The steps below will demonstrate how to turn on and turn off your MessageBank service.
Turn on MessageBank
- Open the My Telstra app and go to Services and select your service
- Go to Menu (or three vertical dots in the top right-hand side)
- Select Manage your MessageBank to make changes.
Turn off MessageBank
- Open the My Telstra app and go to Services and select your service
- Go to Menu (or three vertical dots in the top right-hand side)
- Select Manage your MessageBank to make changes
- Turn off MessageBank and Update settings.
Turn on MessageBank
- Call 101 or hold down the 1 key on your mobile
- Follow the voice prompts to set up your personal greeting
- Set up your MessageBank® PIN.
Turn off MessageBank
Fill out this MessageBank online form to request to turn off your MessageBank service.
MessageBank Plus
To activate MessageBank® Plus, send an SMS to 144 saying VVM ON. Once that’s done, follow the steps below:
- Go to the phone app on your iPhone
- Select Voicemail
- If this is your first time setting up voicemail it’ll ask you to Set up now
- If prompted to set a PIN, set a 6-digit PIN, you will be asked to re-enter this and it must not be repeating or consecutive digits
- Choose a default greeting, or select Custom to record a personalised greeting.
If you’re having trouble with MessageBank® Plus, try these steps and check your MessageBank®Plus messages after each step:
- Check your network connection; if you’re offline, MessageBank® Plus won’t work
- Make sure voicemail is set up; try calling your number and leave a voicemail
- Go to Settings > General > Reset and select Reset Network Settings. Your phone will reboot but you won't lose any data.
How do I extend my ring time?
- On your Telstra mobile, dial **61*101** then the number of seconds you want to extend your ring time to - 15, 20, 25 or 30 - then finish with #. So, to extend your ring time to 30 seconds, you’d dial **61*101**30#
- Press Call/Send
- You’ll see a screen confirming your ring time extension has been successful.
Call forwarding
Use call forwarding on your mobile to ensure you never miss a call.
There are several flexible options to choose from including unconditional or immediate call forwarding, busy call forwarding, no answer call forwarding and call forwarding if you're out of range or have no coverage.
Standard call charges apply for all forwarded calls.
Find out more about call forwarding
If you’d like to prevent calls from forwarding to MessageBank follow these steps:
- Dial ##002# from your Telstra mobile
- Press Call/Send
- You’ll get a notification about Call Forwarding being disabled
- Press Ok/Dismiss
To resume call forwarding to your MessageBank:
- Dial **004*101# from your Telstra mobile
- Press Call/Send
- You will get a notification about Call Forwarding registration
- Press Ok/Dismiss
If it says ‘not in service’ when you call 101 it means your MessageBank isn’t active. Please refer back to How to manage MessageBank
Frequently asked questions
To change your MessageBank greeting:
- Call 101 or hold down the 1 key on your Telstra mobile
- You’ll hear any new voice messages first and then be directed to the MessageBank main menu
- Press 3 for Mailbox Setup
- Press 1 for Greetings
- Press 1 to re-record your new personal greeting.
Message2Txt® converts a 10-second voice message into an SMS and is activated by default on your Telstra mobile service.
If you activate MessageBank® then Message2Txt® will be turned off until you deactivate MessageBank® again.
To turn Message2Txt 'off' or 'on', send an SMS to 144 with the following text:
| Text | Action |
|---|---|
| DCF On | Turns on the diversion to Message2Txt |
| DCF Off | Turns off the diversion to Message2Txt |
| DCF Status | Will display the current status of Message2Txt |
- Dial your mobile number from another handset
- When you hear your MessageBank greeting press #
- You'll be prompted for your PIN
- Enter your PIN to access the normal menu.
Or send an SMS to +61101 while roaming internationally - additional charges will apply.
Hang-up messages are SMS notifications that tell you when a caller has hung up after your greeting and didn’t leave a message.
To activate or cancel hang-up messages:
- Call 101 on your Telstra mobile.
- You'll hear any new voice messages first, press ** to go to the MessageBank® main menu
- Press 3 for Mailbox Setup
- Press 6 for Hang-up Message service
- Follow the prompts to turn it on or off.
Your caller ID preference determines whether your phone number is visible to people you call. Find out more about managing Caller ID
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