Handle your missed or declined calls with Take a Message feature

To respond to your missed and declined calls, you can use Take a Message. A transcription and audio of the caller’s message appear in the Recents tab. Take a Message can also detect spam among messages left by missed or declined calls from non-contact numbers.

Take a Message works on your device and doesn't use Wi-Fi or mobile data. Calls answered by Take a Message are treated the same as regular incoming calls. Learn how Take a Message works with your data.

Your carrier voicemail handles missed or declined calls when your phone is off or out of network. If you set a custom greeting, this greeting plays for all callers.

Feature availability

You can use Take a Message on Pixel 4 and higher in:

Australia
Ireland
UK
US

Set up Take a Message on your phone

Important: Make sure you have the latest version of the Phone app.

To set up Take a Message:

Open the Phone app .
Tap More Settings Take a Message.
Turn on Take a Message.

Set up Take a Message on your Pixel Watch

Important: Take a Message is available only for Pixel Watches 2 or higher and requires a Pixel 6 or higher Pixel phones.

To use Take a Message on Pixel Watch:

Your Pixel watch must be connected to your Pixel phone over Bluetooth.
Take a Message must be turned on from the Phone by Google app settings menu.

Use Take a Message

When you miss or decline a call, you get a silent “Taking a Message” notification.
To get the transcript of what the caller says in real-time live, tap the Taking a Message notification.
- When you open a live transcript of Take a Message, your phone may stop playing media, like videos or music.
When the caller leaves a message, to join the call at any time, tap the Answer button on the screen.

Tip: There are certain scenarios when Take a Message may not work for all calls. Missed and declined calls will be processed by your carrier’s voicemail (if you have that service from your carrier). These scenarios include:

When your phone is roaming
When your phone is off or out of network
When you decline the call while using a Bluetooth headset

Get transcripts & recordings for missed or declined calls processed by Take a Message

All Take a Message calls will save a transcript and audio of the message left by the caller on your phone. To find them:

Open the Phone app .
Tap Recents Recent missed or Declined call where a caller left a message.
Take a Message calls have the icon. You can open the audio and a portion of the transcript.
- To get the full transcript, tap View full transcript.
- Optional: To delete the transcript and recording, in the "Recents" tab, tap Recent call. Then, tap Delete .

Learn how Take a Message works

Take a Message can also detect spam calls among missed or declined calls from phone numbers outside of your contact list.
When a spam call is detected, the call is marked as “Spam” in the "Recents" tab.
- Spam calls are marked with the .
Not all spam calls and robocalls can be detected.
The Take a Message call information won’t be saved to your:
- Google Account
- Call Assist Activity
- Web and App Activity
Take a Message won't always fully understand and transcribe what a caller said.
Learn more about how Take a Message works.

Caller’s experience

After a call is missed or declined, Take a Message will take over the call and the caller will hear a greeting.

If you recorded a custom voicemail greeting with your carrier through the Phone by Google app, Take a Message will use that recording instead.
Otherwise, Take a Message will use a default greeting instead.

Troubleshoot: Take a Message

If you don’t find “Take a Message” in Settings

Most carriers support Take a Message. DISH doesn't support Take a Message.

If conditional call forwarding doesn’t work properly

Your carrier’s conditional call forwarding may not work properly with Take a Message. If you want to use conditional call forwarding, turn off "Take a Message" instead.

Open the Phone app .
Tap More Settings Take a Message.
Turn off Take a Message.

Tip: Unconditional call forwarding that transfers calls immediately, or call forwarding that transfers calls if a user is busy with a different call will work with Take a Message without any additional action.