Carriers have offered voicemail support for years, a feature that many people may take for granted. But Google decided last year to redesign voicemail and make it even more useful. The company launched a feature called Take a Message with the Pixel 10 series in 2025, integrating AI to improve the calling experience for Pixel users by allowing them to screen calls in real-time. Take a Message behaves more like a traditional answering machine connected to a landline phone, with one key difference. The AI ​​would also generate transcriptions of the voice message. Fast forward to June 2026, and Google has upgraded the Take a Message tool with another feature reminiscent of traditional answering machines, as well as carrier voicemail services. Users can now record custom messages for Take a Message instead of using Google’s default greeting.
According to 9to5Google, the personalized greetings Take a Message feature first appeared in the beta version of the Phone by Google app in April 2026. The feature is currently rolling out to supported devices. You’ll need a Pixel 6 or later running Android 16 or later to use this feature. Taking a message is not supported worldwide. As of this writing, users in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom can use it.
To start using the new personalized greetings, you’ll need to look in the Home tab for a new prompt titled “A personal touch on your missed calls” that allows you to test the greeting feature. Alternatively, you’ll find the new feature in the Take Message settings. You can set multiple recordings up to one minute long, then select the one you want to use for incoming calls going to voicemail.
How Take a Message Works
The new personalized greeting does not change how the Pixel Voicemail feature works. Taking a message isn’t just a convenient way to make sure you don’t miss important calls from family, friends and colleagues. This is a smart feature that will reduce distractions by saving you from dealing with unwanted calls and unknown numbers. Take a Message runs on the phone, instead of the cloud or carrier servers, and uses AI to answer the call, play the default or personalized greeting to the caller, then record a message and generate a transcript of the call. The user can pick up the phone after reviewing the live transcript and deciding that the call requires immediate attention. Taking a Message can also provide AI-based suggestions to track calls going to voicemail.
Take a message is a feature that builds on other features developed by Google to improve the user’s calling experience. For example, Take a Message uses spam detection features (Call Screen) developed by Google for Pixel phones. Call Notes, launching with the Pixel 9 series in 2024, is a feature that allows users to record calls and transcribe them. The AI ​​can also generate summaries for the call.
Transcriptions generated with Take a Message are saved directly to the phone, just like call recordings. The data is not sent to Google servers and is not saved in your Google account. Users can browse transcriptions and recordings and delete unnecessary ones.
What about operator voicemail?
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The Take a Message feature was designed to work directly on the phone and provide smarter features than traditional answering machines or carrier voicemail services. But Taking a Message doesn’t eliminate the need to use carrier voicemail. The feature only works when the Pixel phone is turned on and connected to a network. If the handset is turned off, out of coverage or roaming, Take a message will not work. Instead, the carrier’s regular voicemail service can help you store voicemails from missed calls, provided you have it set up for your phone number. It’s important to note that declining a call when using a Bluetooth headset, such as Google’s Pixel Buds, will send that call to the carrier’s voicemail instead of taking a message. Pixel users with Pixel Watch 2 or later models can use the smartwatch to enable Take a Message for incoming calls.
Traditional carrier voicemail may not offer the same on-device AI features as Take a Message, but it will let you record a personalized greeting for callers. If you need to make sure you don’t miss important calls, you may want to use both Take a Message and Voicemail to cover more missed call scenarios, assuming both services are available in your country.
