Guide

How to save their voice.

Photographs survive by accident. Voices don't. Voicemails expire, phones get wiped, accounts get closed by a well-meaning relative. If someone you love is gone — or ill — the most fragile thing you have is the sound of them. This is how to keep it.

Do this first, today

Voicemail is the most common recording people have and the easiest to lose. Carriers delete saved messages on their own schedules, sometimes in weeks. Get it off the network and into a file you own.

On iPhone

Open Phone → Voicemail, tap the message, then the share button, and save it to Files or send it to yourself by email. That gives you an audio file rather than a message sitting on a server. If it's an old-style voicemail with no share option, call in and record it with a second device.

On Android

In Phone → Voicemail, open the message and use Save or Share (wording varies by manufacturer and carrier). If your carrier uses basic visual voicemail, dial in and record the playback with a voice-recorder app on another phone.

If the phone is locked or the account is closing

Ask the carrier before you cancel the line. Once a number is released, saved voicemails usually go with it — this is one of the most common irreversible losses families describe.

Where else a voice is hiding

Videos on your phone — birthdays, weddings, holidays. Often the best-quality audio you own.
Old camcorder tapes, MiniDV, and cassettes; local transfer services can digitise them.
WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and Instagram voice notes — export the chat before anyone deletes an account.
Answering-machine cassettes still in a drawer.
Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet recordings from work or family calls.
Church services, school concerts, eulogies, and sports recordings held by other people.
Other relatives' phones — someone almost always has a video nobody remembered.

Recording someone while you still can

If the person is still here, this is the single kindest piece of admin available to you. Ask them to talk for a few minutes, and record it properly.

Use a quiet room. No TV, no dishwasher, no car.
Hold the phone about a hand's width away and let them speak naturally.
Ask open questions: where they grew up, how they met, what they were proud of, advice for a grandchild.
Aim for a few minutes of clear, uninterrupted speech rather than perfect content.
Record more than one session. People relax the second time.

How to store it so it survives

Keep three copies: the phone, a cloud account, and one offline drive.
Save in a plain format — .m4a, .mp3, or .wav — not inside a chat app.
Name files with the person, date, and context, so they still make sense in twenty years.
Put them in one clearly named folder and tell another family member where it is.
Don't rely on a single phone. It's the least durable thing in the chain.

What you can do with it afterwards

Some families make a short audio montage. Some set a favourite line as a recording they can play on hard days. And some use it to build a memorial you can speak to — which is what Missedyu does: from one clear recording, a voice can be modelled so short replies are heard in a tone drawn from theirs, alongside their photos, phrases, and the stories you add.

Whatever you choose, the recording is the irreplaceable part. Save it first; decide later.

Common questions

How much audio is enough for a voice model?

Less than people expect. A short, clear clip of them speaking alone — the length of a typical voicemail — is a workable starting point. More and cleaner audio always helps.

Can a bad recording be cleaned up?

Somewhat. Background noise and crosstalk hurt quality, so favour the clearest clip you have rather than the longest.

Can I retrieve a deleted voicemail?

Sometimes, briefly, through the carrier. Ask immediately — the window is short and varies by provider.

Is it legal to keep and use a dead relative's voice?

Rules vary by country and state, and voice can count as biometric data. Missedyu asks you to confirm you have the right to upload, treats voice as sensitive data, and honours takedown requests from family and estates.

Save the recording. We'll be here when you want to hear it again.

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