rusl.net
Call diverts to bypass Message2Txt
2022-07-16

Telstra made some recent changes to some of their mobile phone plans which enabled a feature called Message2Txt. Message2Txt isn’t new, but they activated it on some accounts that previously didn’t have it activated. There doesn’t appear to be an easy way to disable it entirely. Telstra provides online forms for their customers to request to cancel it, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful and online forums are full of Telstra customers sharing their stories of also being unsuccessful.

If you have MessageBank (voicemail) then Message2Txt is disabled, but I want neither. I just want my phone to ring out if unanswered, give a busy signal when busy, and play a short recorded voice announcement to let the caller know that my phone is switched off or out of range if that’s the case.

This used to be easy, but now it requires a workaround.

I found a post on Whirlpool about this issue and I’ve cobbled together a series of GSM quick codes that achieve what I’m after. It involves setting up a series of call diverts to recorded voice announcements (RVAs).

This cancels all existing diverts:

#002#

This diverts to “The number you are calling is not responding” when unanswered for 30 seconds:

*61*0418707307**30#

This diverts to “The mobile phone you are calling is switched off or not in a mobile service area” when unreachable:

*62*0418707316#

This diverts to a busy signal when busy:

*67*0418707310#

It’s a shame you need to use GSM quick codes and RVAs to make it work, but here we are in 2022 when it would be unthinkable for someone to be unreachable by phone with no way to automatically send them a poorly transcribed and truncated text message.

Here are a few more RVA numbers mentioned in the Whirlpool post linked above. Numbers from 0418707301 to 0418707317 give recorded voice announcements: