A voicemail system includes a voicemail bookmarking procedure that permits users to bookmark voicemail messages during message playback. Upon receiving a bookmark request from a user, the procedure generates a bookmark pointer defining a starting point for subsequent playback of the message. The bookmark pointer can be based, in part, on a timing offset entered by the user while making the bookmark request. The timing offset value defines a user-selected playback starting point that occurs before the message time at which the bookmark request was made. The value of the timing offset can be user selected.