How to Save Phone Messages

Some phone messages are important enough that you'll want to save them forever.  Voicemail messages are audio and can be recorded by many different devices.  Because text messages are different and can’t be easily broadcast to other devices, a different tactic must be used to save text messages.

• Put your phone in speakerphone mode and play your messages.  By placing your phone to broadcast via its speaker, the output can be recorded by any recording device.  You can use a microphone connected to a cassette recorder or a computer to capture your voicemails.


• Connect a stereo cable between the headset-out jack of your phone to your recording equipment’s line-in jack.  A drawback of recording via the speakerphone method is that it picks up extraneous noises.  By using the headset-out or line-out jack on your phone (if available), you can capture your messages without excess noises being brought into the equation.  The other end of the stereo cable would be connected to the line-in jack of your recording equipment, whether it is a computer or an audio cassette recorder.


• Use an online voicemail transcription service.  If you want a transcript of your message only and not an actual recording, then an online voicemail transcription service will do the job.  Services like Google Voice give you visual voicemail and voicemail transcriptions for free.


• Use a service like Treasuremytext.com to save your text messages. Applications are also available for smartphone users to perform the same function.  Those with Android-based smartphones can use the SMS Backup app.