Facilities are provided herein for backing up messages and related activities. An active telephone call is initiated to a voicemail server and recording of the audio stream of the active telephone call is initiated to record a voicemail message being played back during the telephone call. The recorded voicemail message may then be edited, tagged, enhanced, organized with other messages, and shared, as examples. In another aspect, backup of messages is facilitated by an intermediary system that establishes an active telephone call between a voicemail server and a client. The intermediary system passes a request from the client to the voicemail server to commence playback of a voicemail message, and the intermediary system records a portion of the audio stream of the active telephone call.