This is the step that decides whether any of it works.
Why
If your carrier voicemail picks up a missed call, the phone network records that call as answered. Everything downstream stops. No text-back goes out, no lead gets captured, and from the outside it looks like the product simply did nothing.
There is a backstop that catches most of these, but it is a backstop. Voicemail off is the reliable version.
You are not losing your voicemail
You are moving it. Messages come to me instead, and you get them as readable text plus the recording, rather than as a beep you have to ring in for and listen to in order.
For most people this is an upgrade rather than a sacrifice.
Telstra
Dial ##002# to cancel all diversions including MessageBank, then set only the divert codes. Or turn MessageBank off in the MyTelstra app.
One thing to know: Telstra’s Message2Txt voicemail-to-text stops working while you are diverted away from MessageBank. The text-back and readable voicemail replace it. If you cancel and go back to MessageBank, Message2Txt comes back.
Optus and Vodafone
Disable voicemail or MessageBank in the carrier’s app, or use the carrier’s disable code.
If you ring a crew, not just yourself
Every number in the ring group needs voicemail off, not just yours. One phone with voicemail still on can answer the call before the others and stop the whole thing.
Putting it back
Telstra: **004*101# points every condition back to MessageBank, and Message2Txt returns with it. Optus and Vodafone: re-enable voicemail in the app.