How to Change Your Skype Voicemail Message
By Shea Laverty
Just like voicemail, Skype's voice-messaging feature redirects incoming calls to a greeting message, then records a message from the caller. Available on the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of Skype, voice messaging is a free service requiring no downloads or plug-ins. Most of the setup takes place within Skype itself, but the initial step requires that you fire up your Web browser and connect to the Skype website.
Step 1
Sign in to your account on the Skype website and click "Voice Messages" under the Manage Features menu. Skype doesn't feature the ability to activate voice messaging from within the program, so this is the only way to activate it.
Step 2
Click the button for enabling voice messages. You can tell that it's been enabled when the button turns green and shows a check mark.
Step 3
Open the Skype program and click "Tools," followed by "Options."
Step 4
Click the "Calls" button in the menu, followed by "Voice Messages."
Step 5
Click the "Receive unanswered calls as a voice message" check box. Skype has several options on this menu for when it records voice messages. These include how long Skype should wait before recording a message, if it should record messages while you're already in a call or if you reject an incoming call.
Step 6
Click the red "Record" button and begin recording your message. Wait for the beep, then speak clearly into your microphone. Move close enough to the mic that you don't have to raise your voice too much. Maintain at least 6 to 8 inches of distance, however, so your breathing doesn't create any additional noise.
Step 7
Click the red "Stop" button when you've finished recording.
Step 8
Click the blue "Play" button to review your recorded greeting. If you don't like it, click the record button once more and try again. You can also click the red reset button next to the record button, to reset Skype to the default voice message greeting.
Step 9
Click "Save" to finalize your voice-messaging settings. If you close the options menu without saving you will lose all of your changes.
References
Tips
- Regardless of whether you use Windows, Mac or Linux, you must enable voice messaging on the Skype website before trying to set up voice messaging in the program.
- For Skype for Mac, click "Skype" followed by "Preferences" to get to the options menu and click "Set Up Voice Messaging" to record your greeting. Check the "Send declined calls to voice messages" check box if you want rejected calls to go to your voice message. Click "Done" when you've finished recording and then click the "Send to voice messages" button.
- For Skype for Linux, click the Skype logo button and select "Options," followed by "Voice Messages." From here the options and process are the same as the Windows version.
- Your voice greeting has a maximum length of 60 seconds. Generally you won't need longer than this to record a sufficient greeting message for your callers.