I have hated the robotic “the person you have called is not available” message my entire life. It sounds cold, impersonal, and frankly like nobody is home. Google has finally managed to fix that, and I genuinely did not know I needed this until the possibility came to light.
Google is now rolling out custom greetings for the Pixel’s Take a Message feature in the Phone app beta version 216, as discovered by 9to5Google, letting users record their own personalized voice greetings instead of the default sterile automated Google Assistant voice.
It may sound like a tiny feature. But think about how many times a day people call you. That greeting is literally the first thing they hear when you’re unavailable. It’s basically your front door.
Are you now curious to know how it works? If you are on the beta version of the Phone app, then you can find the greetings setup here:
Head to Settings, then Take a Message, and you’ll find a new Greetings page. From there, you can record up to a minute-long clip using a clean Material 3 interface, save it, and set it as your default.
The great thing is that the app allows you to store multiple greetings, with the active one marked by a star. So yes, you can have a professional greeting for Mondays and a completely unhinged one for Friday afternoons. A fantastic flexibility that I really respect deeply.
For anyone unfamiliar with the unique Take a Message feature itself, it’s one of my favorite Pixel features that not many talk about enough. When you miss or decline a call, the feature takes the call and handles it like a live conversation, with AI asking the caller who they are and why they’re calling, while you simply watch a real-time transcript appear on your screen. If it turns out the call matters, you can jump in and answer immediately. It’s voicemail, but actually useful.
The custom greetings update closes what was honestly an embarrassing gap. Before this, if you wanted a personalized outgoing message, you had to go through your carrier, which is clunky and annoying, even in 2026. Now it all lives inside the Phone app, where it belongs, and in your control.
Right now, you can only set a single default greeting for all callers, but Google may eventually let you assign specific greetings to specific contacts. I want that feature yesterday. Imagine a different greeting for your boss versus your best friend. That would be genuinely fun.
The feature is currently in the Phone by Google beta, available on Pixel 6 and newer devices. A stable rollout shouldn’t be far off, given the UI is fully functional and Google is actively promoting it with in-app banners.
Update your Phone app to the beta and give it a try. Your callers deserve better than a robot.
