Few things in life are more sacred than that last voicemail you received from a loved one, or more important than the critical details of that big business proposal. These invaluable voicemails deserve a backup.

If you're an Android user, you have more than one way to save precious voicemails. Picking the best method to use isn't always easy, but here are all the options at your disposal.

Can You Save Voicemails From a Cellular Carrier to an Android Phone?

Yes, you can! If your cell service is through a major US phone carrier (like Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile), you can download your voicemails via their official visual voicemail app. Smaller US phone carriers may offer similar visual voicemail apps, but your mileage will vary. For this example, we'll use the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app to save a voicemail to an Android phone.

Download: T-Mobile Visual Voicemail (Free, in-app purchases available)

Here's how to use it:

  1. Open the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app.
  2. Tap the voicemail you want to download.
  3. Select Settings from the menu in the top-right corner of the screen.
  4. Choose Save message to.
  5. Type a file name for your voicemail.
  6. Type the file path that you want to save the voicemail to (or leave the default file path).
  7. Tap Save.

This process may look different depending on your carrier, but the process will be similar.

That's easy enough if you're happy with your carrier's visual voicemail app. But what if you want to use the default Voicemail feature in the Phone app? Well, it's possible to save voicemails on Android via this route, too.

How to Save Voicemails Using the Default Android Voicemail App

First, be sure you already know how to set up voicemail on Android. If your carrier offers visual voicemail, this will also appear in the Phone app after you set up voicemail. It's no wonder some people may not want to steer away from Android's default voicemail option.

If that's you, here's how to save voicemails on Android via the Phone app's Voicemail feature:

  1. Open the Phone app.
  2. Tap Voicemail.
  3. Select Share.
  4. Tap Drive.

This will save the voicemail to your Google Drive account, though any cloud backup service like Dropbox will do. From here:

  1. Name the voicemail.
  2. Choose the location to save the voicemail (My Drive is selected as the default option).
  3. Open Drive and find the uploaded voicemail.
  4. Select Settings.
  5. Choose Download.

This will download the voicemail to your Android device's internal storage.

If you abide by the 3-2-1 backup strategy that protects your data, though, you'll want to save your voicemail to another location. An SD card is a solid choice to store your voicemails. Let's look at how to do that next.

How to Save Voicemails to an SD Card on Android

After following the steps above, find the voicemail you just downloaded using the free Files by Google app. Here's how:

  1. Open Files by Google.
  2. Select Browse.
  3. Find your voicemail via a category (likely Downloads or Audio).
  4. Tap Settings on the voicemail.
  5. Select Move to.
  6. Tap the SD Card icon to save the voicemail to your phone's connected SD card.

Android users who own a phone without an SD card port are not out of luck, though. If you have a desktop PC and know how to transfer files from Android to PC, you just have a few more steps. First:

  1. Download the voicemail to your computer via Google Drive or another cloud service.
  2. Insert the SD card into your computer's SD card slot.
  3. Open the SD card in File Explorer on your computer.
  4. Drag and drop the downloaded voicemail to your SD card's directory.

If your desktop does not have an SD card slot, use a USB SD card reader instead.

Your voicemail file should be in an AMR file format. That's fine if you plan to play the voicemail on your Android phone or Windows PC. But suppose you want to share your voicemail with others and want a guarantee that it will play on virtually any device. In that case, you need to convert it to a universally accepted audio file format, like MP3. Let's look at how to do that with the free, safe, and reputable online tool, FileZigZag.

The homepage of FileZigZag

How to Download a Voicemail as an MP3 to a Computer

After following the steps above, here's how to convert your AMR voicemail message into an MP3:

  1. Select Browse for Files.
  2. Click your AMR file.
  3. Select Open.
  4. Click Please select under the Target Format option.
  5. Select MP3.
  6. Choose Start Converting. Alternatively, click the Send me an email with links to converted files to get a copy of your voicemail message in your inbox.
  7. Save the MP3 file to your computer.

Saving Voicemails on Android Devices Is Easy Enough

Even though it's easy to figure out how to save voicemails on Android once you understand the process, the different voicemail apps and various ways we back up our data can vary from one person to the next. Thus, our needs for saving those most precious voicemail messages differ.

But, by following the instructions above, you will find a process that works for you and allows you to keep your cherished voicemails in the manner that works best for you. In the end, that is what matters most.