WhatsApp’s announced that it’s rolling out voice message transcripts to all users, which will provide another way to engage with voice messages in the app.
As you can see in this example, the new option will enable you to switch on automatic transcripts of voice messages in the app, so that you can read the audio notes that people have left for you.
Which could help to bridge the gap between people who love to leave voice messages, and people who hate listening to them, while also ensuring that you can engage with voice messages in any situation, and again, improving accessibility.
WhatsApp says that voice messages transcripts will be generated on your phone, which will ensure that no one, “not even WhatsApp, can hear or read them.”
So even though they will be translated into text, WhatsApp’s core privacy and security elements will be maintained, while the option will also support various languages.
As per TechCrunch:
“On iOS, the languages that are supported depend on your OS. If you have iOS 16+, the supported languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic. If you have iOS 17+, the supported languages include Danish, Finish, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Hebrew, and Thai. If you have an Android, you can access transcripts in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.”
It could be a handy addition, enabling users to communicate in their own preferred style, with the recipient then able to choose how they then engage with that message.
Of course, there is also a risk that these automated transcripts won’t be 100% correct. But for the most part, based on automated transcription tools in social apps, you can understand when there are likely errors, so this shouldn’t be a major issue.
Another consideration for your WhatsApp process.
WhatsApp says that voice message transcripts will be rolling out globally “over the coming weeks”.
