The iPhone Voice Messages feature is very useful and fun, allowing audio recordings to be sent to and from people in the Messages app. Voice Messaging lets people hear your voice, and you can hear theirs, and for most people it’s easier to talk on their iPhone than to send out a long text message. Understanding how Voice Messages and Audio Messages work to record and send on your iPhone allows you to get the most out of this feature, but over time Apple has changed where it is available and accessed on the iPhone, which may throw off some users.
Let’s go through the basics of voice messages on the iPhone, so you can understand how the feature works, how to access it, and make the most of voice messages.
A quick side note: Voice Messages and Audio Messages are completely different from Dictation, which is a voice-to-text feature that converts your speech to text directly or through Siri, and that usually comes with a “Sent via Siri” badge attached to it. Voice Messages come as an audio file that the recipient can play directly on their iPhone within the message conversation thread, and then reply.
How to Record Voicemails / Audio Messages on iPhone with iOS 26
The most direct and easy way to record audio/voice messages on iPhone by accessing them directly.
- Open any message chat
- Tap the (+) plus button
- Tap on “Audio” (you may need to scroll down to find this)
- Record your audio message as desired, when finished press the Stop button
- Play back your voice message if you like, otherwise just press the Send button like any other message
That’s it, the recorded voice message comes to the recipient’s iPhone or Android, and they can listen to it directly in the message conversation. They can reply with their own voice message, or text, and so on.
Recording Voice/Audio Messages with Raise to Listen on iPhone
Apple also enables a feature called “Hold Up to Listen” by default on all iPhones, and while that feature can cause a lot of confusion with random audio recordings in messages, once understood and used properly it can be fun. Here’s how to use it properly:
- In a message thread, hold the iPhone up to your ear and start speaking to record your audio message
- Send an audio/voice message as usual
If Raise to Listen works as intended, it can behave like a walkie-talkie, you just take your iPhone to the messaging chat and start talking, send it, then repeat to listen and reply again.
Raise to listen and increase to record does not always work reliably however, and can be started unintentionally giving the impression that the iPhone is recording audio messages randomly, which is not the case, so generally speaking it is better to rely on the direct button Plus + > Audio method to record a voice message on your iPhone and send it to someone.
Now that you understand how to record and send voice messages on iPhone, remember that this is the case with iOS 26 and newer, as well as iOS 18, where the user interface has changed to accommodate this particular way of accessing and using audio messages. It wasn’t too long ago when it wasn’t too far ag
Apple has changed the way Voice Messages and Audio Messages work on the iPhone several times now, and in iOS 26 and later, iOS 18 and earlier, and in different ways in iOS 16, and iOS 15 or earlier. Why all the changes in this were made is not entirely clear, but it certainly keeps everyone on their toes, especially those who like and rely on these features that are shot, buried, and shipped with iOS software updates.
Do you use audio messages and voice messages on iPhone? What do you think about this feature?