Voicemail Forwarding

May 13, 2011 6:03 AM

Forwarding Verizon Voicemails to Google Voice (or an otherwise safe location)?

I have three voice mails on my cell phone that I have saved for several years. I can not bring myself to get rid of them, as the person who left them killed himself shortly after. I'm sure that's another therapy question altogether. For now, I would like to get them off of my Verizon voice mail and transfer them to either google voice (which is now my default voice mail) or some other safe location.

After searching through google help and metafilter, I can't find anyone who has had this issue. I'm sure this is an easy fix that I'm just missing. Simple forwarding to my google number doesn't work. Can any google savants help me with this?

Many, many thanks.

posted by Lullen to Technology (7 answers total)

There could be an easier way to do this, otherwise, you can record calls coming into Google Voice by pressing '4'. So, you need to call your voicemail, set up a three-way call to your google voice number, initiate the recording, and play the voicemail.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:12 AM on May 13, 2011

Verizon's voice mail is closed, I'm not aware of any way to forward a voice mail out of the system. You'll have to record it, although I don't know that you need a three way call. If you call into Verizon voice mail from Google Voice on your PC, you can record it as you listen to it, them you'll have an MP3 of the call.
posted by COD at 6:23 AM on May 13, 2011

I used to use GotVoice, which did exactly this. It would dial in to your voicemail "as you" (it worked with Verizon) and convert the messages to mp3s. I was using it as a way to check voicemails when I traveled internationally, before Google Voice came along.

Apparently GotVoice no longer has a "consumer product", but I seem to remember they transferred the accounts to YouMail. Not sure if YouMail does exactly the same thing, but it might be worth checking out.
posted by jozxyqk at 6:33 AM on May 13, 2011

Best answer: Try this service http://www.savemyvm.com/
posted by tomswift at 6:39 AM on May 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

How about just running a line out from the headphone jack on your phone to the line in on your computer?
posted by bcwinters at 7:59 AM on May 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you do record them with Google Voice, DO NOT delete them from your voicemail until you're sure they're safe in your Google Voice account and you've downloaded the resulting Google Voice MP3(s). I've (thought) I recorded entire interviews before with Google Voice and unfortunately, the recording didn't work for some reason. Others have had this problem as well. Doing a three-way phone call with Google Voice, as These Premises Are Alarmed recommended, is a great idea, but I would definitely urge you to verify the recordings before you delete the original voicemails.
posted by limeonaire at 10:11 AM on May 13, 2011

Response by poster: Sorry about the complete delay in responding... I got lazy about doing it. I think all the answers have merit, but tomswift's suggestion just seemed so clear-cut (and good for lazy lazy me). Thank you guys!
posted by Lullen at 9:16 PM on July 17, 2011