Turn off voicemail
Did you intend to watch 3 hours of dumpster diving videos on YouTube? No, the option was presented to you, and you took the path of least resistance.
Similarly, people don't call you because they want to leave a voicemail, they call you because they want to talk to you — they leave a voicemail because the option is there, and they just do.
I only mention this, because I don't want you to feel bad about turning it off — like you're being anti-social or selfish.
Turning off voicemail is a selfless, pro-social act — that has the side-effect of saving you time and mental energy
Voicemail was useful when there was no other way to leave a message or for the receiver to know if they'd missed a call — but in the year 2023, it no longer serves us.
It fills our phone with spam, scams, long unprepared rambles we feel obligated to listen to, and sometimes just some weirdo heavily breathing.
And — now that scammers only need a few seconds of your voice to create a convincing clone1 — having a custom voicemail message is a security risk.
How to turn off voicemail?
It depends on your mobile provider. Some allow you to switch it off from the settings on your phone. Some you need to call up your provider. I had to call — but it didn't take so long.Footnotes