No, You Shouldn’t Change Your iPhone’s Voicemail Greeting While Stranded Without Cell Service | Here’s Why

If you’ve been paying attention to headlines and viral posts recently, you may have noticed a Tweet or meme making the rounds and receiving a lot of attention due to its emergency advice.

Let’s say you’re stranded somewhere and need help badly. Your smartphone is either almost out of battery and therefore about to be useless, or is out of service range and can’t make calls – or a combination of both. The viral directions instructed people to change their voicemail in these situations, leaving details of their whereabouts and how they need help. 

Your voicemail, the advice claims, can be updated even if you are out of service range and doesn’t require much battery power to update. 

In short, no.

This is not your best option when you are stranded and need help. It’s wrong from top to bottom. Let’s break down why this copypasta is a bad idea.

No, Your Voicemail Can’t Be Updated without Service

Even if you make an effort to make an emergency voicemail, it won’t update if you are out of range, period. Your smartphone needs a Wi-Fi or data connection of some kind to make this change. Sure, the landline answering machines from 30 years ago used local storage that could be overwritten easily, but today’s smartphones are an entirely different kind of device. Your iPhone’s voicemail greeting can only be overwritten if the phone can make a connection.

Voicemail Changes Use More Battery, Not Less

Trying to change your voicemail on a dying battery will eat up the last of your power like a hungry, hungry hippo. It’s a complex process that has to record quite a bit of voice data and upload it. On the other hand, you know what is a great idea? Sending a text instead.

Compared to other options, a text contains far less data than anything else, which makes it much more likely to make it through a spotty network connection when you are desperate. It will also use much less battery – and even if the text fails once, text messages are designed to attempt sending over and over again in situations just like this, where connections are unreliable.

To save as much power possible, you can also turn off your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi while you compose your text, something that’s harder to do when trying to change your voicemail.

FCC Rules That Can Help You Don’t Apply to Voicemail Greetings

Did you know that FCC rules state that wireless carriers have to transmit emergency messages sent to 911? That includes texts that you may send to 911 asking for help or sending location information. That’s particularly important because stranded people may be in an area where their carrier can’t connect, but another carrier may have service. That allows an emergency text to be picked up and sent along. The same is not true for changing your voicemail message.

Texting Lets You Multitask

Here’s another reason voicemail is a bad choice – you can’t see your screen while you try to create a new voicemail unless you’re using speakerphone. If you’re composing a text, you can move around at the same time and find a place where your signal is strongest, which makes it even more likely that the text will go through. When creating a voicemail, you can’t watch your signal strength, battery life, or other important notifications at the same time.

Location Services Are Actually Useful

While it may seem like a waste of battery life, you may want to consider turning on location-based services for texting and calling before you attempt to reach out for help. Messages you send and calls you make to services like 911 may be able to include location data that can help people pinpoint your location. And, as usual, this doesn’t work with changing your voicemail – which, once again, is just a Facebook meme and should not be trusted.