iPhone 101: Recovering deleted voicemails

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its retrieving a deleted voice mail message.

One of the great features of the iPhone -- that is, one that is actually related to having phone conversations -- is Visual Voicemail. So long as your carrier (network provider) supports it, Visual Voicemail allows you to see your voicemail messages, similar to a list of text messages or emails. You can decide which messages you want to listen to, when you want to listen to them and scrub through the message to the important part you want to hear. In Apple's own words, "Visual Voicemail on iPhone is still the biggest breakthrough in voicemail since, well, voicemail."

It certainly has changed the way I use voicemail. Gone are the days of dialing in to a voicemail box and laboriously listening to all your messages in a row! But there's one unsung, often overlooked feature of Visual Voicemail: recovering deleted voicemails.

If you've deleted a voicemail message that you really wish you hadn't (say, the pin code for the alarm system at a guest house you're staying at), simply swipe down your row of messages, all the way to the bottom of the list, and tap on "Deleted Messages." So long as you haven't come here before and tapped "Clear All," all the messages you've ever deleted on your iPhone will be stored here. To recover your deleted voicemail, simply search for it in the list, select it and tap on "undelete." The voicemail will pop into your normal voicemail list ready for you to listen to again.