How to forward a voicemail: Step-by-step

Voicemail was invented by the entrepreneur Gordon Matthews in the late 1970s. Since then, people have been leaving voicemails on landlines, cell phones, and communication apps for a variety of reasons.

Voicemail may have a long history, but it still has its uses for business.  According to a SellCell report, 67% of people won’t answer calls from an unknown number but will check any voicemails left by unknown phone numbers.

Fast-moving, efficient operations need flexibility when providing customer support or coordinating team members. The need for adaptability rubs off on recorded messages with voicemail forwarding.

If you’re unfamiliar, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll show you how to forward a voicemail in various situations.

What is voicemail forwarding?

Voicemail forwarding is the process of sending a recorded message to someone. You might be thinking, “can you send a voicemail to someone? I didn’t know that.” So, let’s find out all about it. 

Voicemail forwarding works similarly to email, text message, or call forwarding—or sharing content on your social media accounts. You listen to your voicemail and select the message you want to forward. Then you send the voicemail to your intended recipient.

For example, let’s say a junior sales team member is doing outreach for warm leads. After some email exchanges, the salesperson receives a call while they’re busy with another prospect. That’s okay, though. The interested party leaves a voicemail.

Once the rep is done with their current task, they access their voicemail. They listen to the recorded message. Great! This lead is showing genuine interest. 

However, they’re asking a technical question about a product that goes beyond the scope of the rep. They forward the voicemail as an email attachment (Yes, you can do that) to a senior sales rep and a product expert.

This helps nudge the prospect to the next stage of the sales funnel while also preparing the next team members for answering questions and handling objections. 

That’s just one example. There are plenty of use cases for voicemail forwarding. 

Today, voicemail forwarding works quite flexibly. In the above example, the customer recording was sent as an email. Voicemails from your work mobile can be sent to a manager on their office landline or vice versa. 

You can also forward messages to voicemail owned by someone else on the same business phone system. 

Using a cloud-based PBX, you can share voicemail messages from your mobile phone, desktop computer, desk phone, or web browser.

How to forward a voicemail from a landline

Traditional analog phones still have their uses today despite lacking most of the capabilities of the best VoIP phone services. Did you know, though, that you can forward landline voicemail messages? It doesn’t require any special equipment, and it’s not too complicated.

Let’s look at how to send a voicemail to someone from a landline phone:

1. Press the voicemail button on your device or dial the specific prefix, such as *98 or *86 (for those with Verizon as their service provider, for instance) to access your voicemail.
2. Enter the passcode to gain access. Hopefully, you already know this or have it recorded somewhere.
3. Listen to your options and navigate the menu appropriately. You’ll either need to dial a number or use a voice command, such as saying, “Listen to voicemail.”
4. After you’ve found the message you want to forward, wait until it finishes to hear your options. Select the option to forward or share the recording.
5. Enter the recipient’s phone number or business extension.
6. Listen back to check if you’ve entered the correct number. Once confirmed, transfer the voicemail.

How to forward a voicemail from mobile

Mobility and being able to forward voicemails go hand in hand. What if you’re out of the office but receive an urgent message? Send it from your mobile device to someone who’s at their desk and can address any questions or issues from the caller as quickly as possible. 

Thankfully, it’s a breeze to forward voicemails on most cell phones:

How to forward a voicemail on iPhone

Apple’s iPhone lets you forward voicemails from your carrier with ease. Like most iOS based features, iPhone voicemail is rather intuitive as long as someone shows you how to do it the first time.

Follow these steps to forward voicemails on iPhone:

1. Open the Phone app at the bottom of the home screen. 
2. Tap Voicemail in the lower right corner.
3. Find the message from a list if your carrier provides visual voicemail. Otherwise, click Call Voicemail.
4. Navigate to the message you want to forward. Either do this by finding it in the message list or by listening to the automated menu from your carrier. 
5. Wait for and follow the prompts to forward the message.
6. Enter or state the recipient’s details.
7. Confirm and forward the message.

How to forward a voicemail on Android

Forwarding a voicemail on Android is similarly painless.

Here are the steps for forwarding voicemail messages on Android devices:

1. Open the Phone app on your device.
2. Tap on Voicemail in the bottom menu.
3. If your carrier has visual voicemail, find the voicemail message you want to forward: 
4. Tap it once to open it, then choose a voicemail message.
5. To forward the message, tap the Share button, which appears as three dots connected by two lines.
6. Choose how you want to send the voicemail message.
7. Send it to the receiving party using the method of your choice.

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If you don’t have visual voicemail for Android, then you can listen to the message and select the forward option from the menu. After that, enter the recipient’s phone number.

How to forward a voicemail from a computer

Forwarding a voicemail from a computer can be a bit trickier than other methods. You need a softphone app for desktops or a similar communication tool.

Which business voicemail service you use will determine the specifics. However, here are the basic steps for forwarding a voicemail from a computer:

1. Log into your platform account on your desktop app. 
2. Navigate to your voicemails—there will likely be a voicemail tab or similar dedicated area.
3. View the messages, if you have visual voicemail with transcribed messages. Otherwise, listen to each audio file to find the right one.
4. Click on the forward or options button.
5. Share the message by selecting the channel and the recipient.
6. Click on send or forward.

RingCentral gives you several options to forward voicemail messages to your team members. You can log into your RingCentral account from the desktop app or browser-based app and navigate to voicemails to forward recorded messages or transcriptions.

Another thing you can do is forward a voicemail as an email, and here’s how:

1. Access your RingCentral online account. 
2. Click Settings and then select Notifications. 
3. Open Messaging Notifications.
4. Click the dropdown menu and select Advanced Settings. 
5. In the By Email column, check the Voicemail Messages box.
6. To ensure the notification includes an MP3 attachment, click Customize Notifications. 
7. In the popup window, check Include attachment with email. 
8. Type your preferred email address/es in the Email field.
9. Click Done and then click Save.

Now, your voicemails will be forwarded to your email address. You can easily forward any recording to anyone you want as an email attachment.

Voicemail forwarding best practices for businesses

Voicemail is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any calls. Voicemail forwarding helps you connect people to the right person and the attention they need. 

But, what happens if you forward a voicemail with sensitive information? What about if you forward a voicemail to a colleague who doesn’t check their messages often?

Avoid leaving these and other questions unanswered by following voicemail forwarding best practices:

Check messages regularly

If a voicemail falls down in the woods, but no one is around to hear it, does it exist? If you forward a message to a colleague and they don’t check their voicemail, nothing happens. The customer or teammate who left the message will never get a response. 

Since everyone has their own voicemail, everyone needs to check their voicemail inbox frequently. Create a policy where voicemail is checked and listened to daily. Train your team on how to configure their voicemail settings and have notifications sent to their phones and email accounts.

Automated alerts will ensure no one ever misses a voicemail, whether it’s left for them directly or forwarded from a colleague.

 Maintain confidentiality and privacy compliance

Listen fully to every voice message before deciding whether to forward it or not. Callers may leave sensitive information on a recording that isn’t for the ears of most. 

If you’re involved with healthcare, then you should be well-versed in the requirements of HIPAA. Operating in the EU requires you to comply with the GDPR. 

There are plenty of other regulations that may apply depending on your region. If you’re unsure, it’s best to consult with your leaders on whether certain caller details can be shared.

Standardize for accuracy

Create standardized protocols for voicemail forwarding. People are less likely to adopt a process until they’ve been shown the ropes. A voicemail forwarding guide also provides a consistent collaboration method between employees.

Include a step that requires confirmation of the recipient’s details. Double-checking for accuracy helps to prevent messages from being forwarded to the wrong person. Everyone should follow each step every time to ensure sensitive voicemails aren’t sent to the wrong person.

 Keep your message secure

Forwarding mistakes aren’t the only threat to your and your customers’ information. Modern business phone solutions give you access to evolving and advanced capabilities. They also store your data in the cloud, including voicemail recordings and transcriptions. 

Data breaches are always a risk for businesses today. A 2023 report from the Identity Theft Resource Center found that the total number of breaches was up 78% from the previous year. The data that was compromised affected over 353 million people in 2023.

An IBM report found that 82% of data breaches happen with information stored in the cloud. The same report found that the average cost of a breach is $4.45 million. 

While we can put a price on the cost of a breach, the total damages aren’t so quantifiable. News of a compromise spreads like wildfire. Your brand reputation will be ruined. Customers will lose trust. Not to mention that there may be additional and more serious consequences for compliance violations.

You want to protect all of your information and your customers’ data. Mitigate risk by using secure platforms like RingCentral. Our solutions use single sign-on to retain control over your user authentication credentials and process. 

Every call and meeting is secured from interlopers and eavesdropping. Dynamic End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) secures all of your communications data, including visual voicemail messages, with an extra layer of protection.

 Easily share and manage voicemails with RingCentral

Forwarding voicemails is only the tip of the iceberg of enhanced collaboration. RingCentral RingEX is an AI-powered unified communications platform. It does everything you need for collaboration and then some!

We’ve got you covered for voicemail. You can:

• Personalize your greeting messages
• Set routing rules to send phone calls to voicemail at certain times or according to set criteria 
• Access and share voicemails with a few taps or clicks from your preferred devices 
• Experience visual voicemail where every recording is automatically transcribed 
• Get transcripts sent directly to your email so you can check messages in noisy environments.

Enjoy effortless communications with an all-in-one business phone system. Send an SMS text, call, fax, and host video meetings from the same app—on your desktop, Mac, Samsung phone, iPad, and more. 

Let RingSense AI for RingEX take over many tasks as your personal assistant. Tired of taking call notes or having to dig through recordings to find important details? Our platform takes real-time notes during every interaction. AI smart notes summarize key highlights and actionable points. 

Having trouble keeping an eye on every call? RingSense AI features conversation intelligence that tracks live metrics, such as caller sentiment, energy, and talk time. 

Already using business tools to improve the way you operate? Don’t sweat it. RingCentral comes with more than 300 pre-built integrations for popular CRMs and other apps. Connect communications to your existing tech stack and experience seamless capabilities and automated workflows. 

Sign up for a demo today and find out how RingCentral helps you collaborate effectively and work smarter.

Voicemail forwarding FAQs

 Can I forward a voicemail?

How you forward a voicemail depends on your phone and your carrier. If you have visual voicemail, you can view a list of your messages from your phone’s voicemail app. From there, you find the message you want to forward and select the share icon. Choose your recipient and hit send.

If you don’t have visual voicemail you’ll need to access your personal inbox to find out if you can forward a voicemail message to another number or extension. Alternatively, you can use a cloud-based business phone system with RingCentral or another provider that comes with voicemail forwarding.

How do I forward voicemail on iPhone?

To forward a voicemail on iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Open the Phone app at the bottom of your home screen.
2. Tap on Voicemail.
3. Look through the list and select the voicemail you want to forward.
4. Tap the button that looks like an arrow that points up to share the message.
5. Choose how you want to forward the voicemail, such as by Message, Mail, or AirDrop.
6. Enter the recipient’s phone number or email address, or select them from your contacts list.
7. Tap Send.

Can I forward a voicemail to email?

You can forward a voicemail to your Gmail account or other email inbox with an AI-powered unified communications platform like RingCentral. 

Here’s how to forward a voicemail to email with RingCentral:

1. Login to the RingCentral online account.
2. Go to the Messages tab and select Inbox.
3. Choose the voicemail message that you want to forward.
4. Click the three dots icon under the Actions column, then click the Forward button.
5. Type the email address of the people you want to forward the message to, or click the “+” icon and select names from your contacts.
6. Enter a Subject and Message, then click the Forward button.

Originally published Sep 01, 2024, updated Nov 11, 2024