# Guides > How to collect voice messages from a group for a birthday, a leaving colleague, Christmas, a wedding or someone in hospital, and how to combine them into one recording by hand. Canonical page: https://www.voicehug.co/guides ## By occasion Who to ask, when to start, what to tell people and how to give it. - [How to collect voice messages for a milestone birthday](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/milestone-birthday-voice-messages) — A two-week plan for a 50th, 70th or 80th birthday gift of voice messages from family and old friends. - [What to say in a voice message for a group gift](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/what-to-say-in-a-voice-message) — Prompts and examples for a recorded message for a birthday, a leaving colleague, get well wishes, a wedding or condolences. - [How to organise a leaving gift for a remote colleague](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/remote-colleague-leaving-gift) — Organise a farewell for someone on a remote or hybrid team: messages across time zones, kept secret in Slack or Teams. - [How to collect retirement messages from colleagues past and present](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/retirement-messages-from-colleagues) — Gather messages for someone retiring after a long career, including former colleagues, and present them at the party. - [How to send Christmas messages from family who can't be there](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/christmas-messages-from-family-far-away) — A December plan for a Christmas recording from relatives and friends who will not be home this year. - [How to send get well messages from a group to someone in hospital](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/get-well-messages-from-a-group) — Collect get well messages from friends, family or colleagues for someone in hospital or recovering at home. - [How to collect messages for a 25th, 40th or 50th anniversary](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/anniversary-messages-from-family) — A plan for a golden, ruby or silver anniversary gift of voice messages from children, grandchildren and old friends. - [How to include wedding guests who can't attend](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/wedding-messages-from-guests-who-cant-attend) — Collect voice messages from family and friends who cannot come to a wedding, to play at the reception or give afterwards. - [How to send condolences from a group](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/sympathy-messages-from-a-group) — Gather condolences and memories from friends, colleagues or a community for someone who is grieving. - [Voice messages for someone with dementia: what families can record](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/voice-messages-for-someone-with-dementia) — What family and friends can record for someone with dementia, how to play it, and what the evidence does and does not show. - [What to send someone in hospice when you are far away](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/what-to-send-someone-in-hospice) — A recording of family and friends' voices for someone in hospice, which staff or family can play at the bedside. - [Gifts for someone who can't read cards anymore](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/gifts-for-someone-who-cant-read-cards) — Gift ideas for someone who can't read cards because of vision loss, stroke, dementia, chemo or intensive care. - [Race-day pep talks from friends: a marathon surprise for your runner](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/race-day-messages-from-friends) — Collect pep talks from friends into one MP3 a runner can load before a marathon, half marathon, triathlon or HYROX. - [What to give a friend in hospital from all of us](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/gift-for-friend-in-hospital-from-a-group) — Group gift ideas for a friend in hospital, including a recording of everyone's voices, for wards that do not allow flowers. ## Do it yourself Collecting and combining voice messages by hand, with free tools. - [How to combine voice messages into one audio file](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/combine-voice-messages-into-one-file) — Join voice messages from different phones into one MP3 with Audacity, GarageBand, QuickTime or ffmpeg, levelling the volume. - [How to save WhatsApp voice notes and merge them into one recording](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/merge-whatsapp-voice-notes) — Save WhatsApp voice notes from iPhone or Android (they are .opus files) and merge them into one MP3. - [How to convert WhatsApp voice notes to MP3](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/convert-whatsapp-voice-notes-to-mp3) — Convert WhatsApp .opus voice notes to MP3 with VLC, Audacity or ffmpeg, one file or a whole folder. - [How to combine voice memos from several people on iPhone or Mac](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/combine-iphone-voice-memos) — Voice Memos cannot merge recordings; how to share them as .m4a files and join them with GarageBand, QuickTime or Audacity. - [How to combine voice recordings on Android](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/combine-android-voice-recordings) — Get recordings out of Samsung Voice Recorder or Pixel Recorder and join them into one MP3 on a computer. - [How to save Telegram voice messages and merge them into one recording](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/merge-telegram-voice-messages) — Export voice messages from a Telegram chat with Telegram Desktop and merge the .ogg files into one MP3. - [How to collect voice messages from a group for a surprise](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/collect-voice-messages-from-a-group) — Collect voice messages from many people via a WhatsApp group, Dropbox File Request, Google Forms or email, and what each asks of contributors. - [How to make an audio guestbook without renting a phone](https://www.voicehug.co/md/guides/diy-audio-guestbook) — Build an audio guestbook from a rotary phone, use a voicemail number, or collect voice messages by link, instead of renting a phone.