Problem

You need an escape from all the useless prompts (send a numeric page, leave a callback number, blah blah blah) you have to sit through before leaving a voice-mail message on somebody’s cell phone?

Solution

Representatives for AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless say you can skip both a voice-mail greeting and the prompts after it by pressing the right key on your phone.

If you’re calling a AT&T subscriber, pressing “0” will usually let you start recording your message right away; with a Sprint customer, press “1”; for a Verizon user, use the asterisk key; and when phoning a T-Mobile subscriber, hit the number key.

Because each of these companies picked a different shortcut key, you can do callers a favor by reminding them of the right button to press in your greeting.

Sprint users can change their voice-mail settings to inflict one fewer prompt on callers. Call your voice mail from your phone, press 3 to enter the “personal options” menu, press 1 to change your settings, then press 6 to deactivate the “leave a callback number” prompt. Your friends will thank you.