Smartphone dummy: how can I pick up my answer phone messages?

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

Ok, first of all apologies for being dim, I have hovered outside the Orange shop several times trying to pluck up courage to ask this but I'm embarrassed and suspect they'll snigger.

I recently had to replace my old mobile and decided to get an entry model PAYG smartphone (ie the cheapest one they had that I recognised the brand: a Samsung Galaxy Mini). I only really text, make occasional calls and FB on my phone but thought it might be useful for checking bus times etc when out and about. I knew at the price it wouldn't be anything like an iPhone and anyway I have an iPod touch so don't need it to be.

However. I am struggling with a very basic thing. When I miss a call, and phone for voicemail, I can't seem to pick up my messages. To listen to my messages I need to 'press 1' but by the time I get to that option, the screen has locked. I unlock the screen, navigate to the keypad, press 1 and - nothing. The 1 appears on screen so the phone has registered it but the Orange voicemail service hasn't, and cuts me off.

What am I doing wrong? Or how can I change the phone settings to fix it? It's driving me crazy and Googling hasn't come up with any answers.

Thanks in advance!

press and hold 1?

OP - Some phones default setting is such that it locks the screen if there is no activity for say 10 seconds for example. From your description it sounds like you need to change the setting to something more reasonable. As it is, while you are listening to the instructions the phone decides to hang up your call and then lock the screen.

Squirted, I thought that was what I was doing, hence my confusion when it didn't work, but reading the instructions again, maybe they mean press 1 before getting the instruction to press 1... Hmmm. Will give it a try, and if no joy will do what Habba suggests and change the time it takes to lock the screen - either my reactions are v v slow or the setting is super fast, it seems to lock almost instantly.

Thank you both. It's at times like this I realise how old I feel. I have no patience with learning new technology these days, whereas in my youth I was a bit of an early adopter.

The number for Orange Answerphone is '123' but some phones will dial the network's 'voicemail' service just by holding the '1' key.

(Hence the web link from SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots but the link is for EE, T-Mob and Orange, and I don't know if all of them use '123' - certainly other networks can use other numbers).

Some phones even have a 'voicemail' symbol (like a cassette tape, two circles representing spools with a line below, joining the edges, as if it is a tape from one spool to the other). I have looked at the Galaxy Mini settings, but what I see may be different to you (the phone I have is not on Orange, and some settings can be altered by network operator).

If you really dislike voicemail (or get charged, as so many services do these days) you can ask for it to be disabled by Customer Services at Orange. I have several mobiles and have voicemail disabled on all but one, as I have 'unlimited calls' on my contract phone so can call back any 'missed' callers, while not paying ridiculous 30+p per minute for voicemail. The one where I left it on is a very old (10+ years) Virgin PAYG number where calling it is free :)

At least if you have voicemail disabled at network level, no message can be left, and you will either have a longer period of ringing and be able to answer the call, or they may ring back if they need to reach you and cannot leave any message, or if you know the number you could ring them (or use a pre-arranged 'one ring, call me back' signal, if they have unlimited calls!)

In fact mine has the symbol (albeit has the line across the top from spool to spool).

I tried it, just using the dial pad and holding finger on the '1' (and mine said 'missing voicemail number' as it was the first time this particular mobile has had a SIM in it).

It prompted me to add a number, so in your case you'd enter 123

Hope that works for you.

I think the screen lock is a bit of a red herring... in almost all cases (unless someone is n the middle of writing a text or about to make a call) the phone will have the screen lock on when a call comes in... It's normal in my experience (admittedly with other Android phones) to just use the unlock 'swipe' to accept the call.

However, with some phones/networks it is possible to set the length of time before switching to voicemail... Not all networks, unfortunately, but I aim for 20 or 30 seconds at least!