How do I separate my Sideline voicemail from my regular voicemail?

This article is for help with separating your Sideline voicemail from your device's personal voicemail within the Sideline app. 

There may be times when your device's voicemail greeting will play briefly before your Sideline greeting when someone calls your Sideline number. This article will outline the steps you can take to prevent this from happening. 

To keep your Sideline calls from routing to your personal voicemail, we suggest the following:

1. Enable "Call Announcement"
2. Enable Forward calls to voicemail
3. (iOS users only) Disable "Silence Unknown Callers"
4. Don't decline the incoming call
5. Change your device's voicemail pickup time
6. Check for Spam Blocking apps on your device
7. Carrier reset 

1. Enable "Call Announcement"

With Call Announcement enabled, anytime you receive a call to your Sideline number, an audio prompt will let you choose whether you want to answer the call (press 1) or send the call to your Sideline voicemail. (Instructions on how to enable)

Note: With this setting enabled, it will prevent your incoming calls from reaching your device's voicemail and will push to Sideline. 

2. Enable Forward calls to voicemail (optional)

Anytime you receive a call to your Sideline number, the caller will be sent straight to the Sideline voicemail greeting you've set. With that being said, some customers do not wish to have this feature enabled as it does prevent your phone from ringing when people call your Sideline number. (Instructions on how to enable)

Important: If you've turned off Forward Calls to Voicemail, and you're still not getting your calls, please check your device contact list and ensure that you haven't blocked the contact (iOS) "Incoming Sideline Call" or (Android) "Sideline Incoming Call"

3. (iOS users only) Disable "Silence Unknown Callers"

iPhones have a device setting called "Silence Unknown Callers." This setting is helpful if you don't want to be bothered by unknown numbers or spam calls.

However, with this setting enabled, you will not be able to receive incoming calls to Sideline if the number is not saved in Sideline's address book as a contact. 

If your Sideline calls are routed to your iPhone's voicemail, you will need to disable this setting in an attempt to resolve your calling issue. Here's how:

1. Open your iPhone Settings.
2. Tap on “Phone”
3. Silence Unknown Callers.

4. Let the call ring through - Do not decline the call

When you're receiving a call to your Sideline number, your phone will show "Sideline - 14085551234" for example. Instead of declining the call, let it ring through to voicemail.

If you decline the call, your carrier may pick up the call, sending it to your primary voicemail instead.

5. Set your voicemail to pick up after 30 seconds

For AT&T and T-Mobile customers, you can set the time it takes for your native voicemail to pick up a call.

If you're noticing your native voicemail picking up calls intended for Sideline, follow the instructions below to set a time for 30 seconds:

1. Using the Phone app, enter *#61# and press the call button. (This will take you to a page that displays your voicemail number)
2. Write down or memorize the voicemail number displayed on this screen. Since we will be using it in the following steps. Once you have the number, press Dismiss
3. Using the Phone app, enter *61* followed by the Voice Call Forwarding number you took down in Step 2. It should look something like this *61*+
4. Now add *11 after your call forwarding number
5. Follow that by entering *(number of seconds you want users to wait before being sent to voicemail)then add #
   • 30 is the max time and must be in increments of 5 seconds
   • The final entry should look something like this (seen below) for someone wanting the voicemail response time to be 30 seconds
   • *61*+12345678901*11*30#
6. After entering those numbers from Step 5, place the call by tapping Call. If you have done everything correctly, you’ll see this: 
   
    

• AT&T FORUM LINK
• T-MOBILE FORUM LINK

Note: You cannot change the voicemail pickup time if you are a Verizon or Sprint customer. However, to be sure, you can always check with their customer service teams. 

• Verizon voicemail pickup time is preset to 30 seconds
• Sprint voicemail pickup time is preset to 23 seconds

6. Check for Spam Blocking apps on your device

If the above troubleshooting steps do not resolve your issue, we recommend reaching out to your mobile Carrier to ensure you do not have "Spam filtering" enabled and explain that the calling app you're using (Sideline) is not receiving calls. 

More info on how spam-blocking apps impact Sideline can be found HERE. 

Carrier info (just to understand if you have this currently enabled) but we recommend reaching out to your Carrier's support team directly. 

• Verizon
• AT&T 
• T-Mobile

7. Carrier reset 

If all else fails, please contact your Carrier and ask that they reset your mobile configuration to help fix the call routing issues. 

If you have any further questions, please submit a request.