The transcription feature has only been spotted on WhatsApp on iOS as of now but Android should be getting it as well.
Ever received a ridiculously lengthy voice message on WhatsApp that you just don’t have the time to listen to? Or maybe you’re outside and aren’t carrying earphones with you? A new feature that will transcribe audio messages into text is on its way to the app to help you with this.
As noted by WABetaInfo, the latest beta (23.3.0.73) of WhatsApp’s iOS app introduces a transcription feature for audio messages. The feature isn’t yet visible for users even if they’re on that version because it’s still under development. It appears that WABetaInfo dug into the app deep and threw a switch to enable the feature.
The publication has shared a screenshot of an “introduction screen” that explains when the transcription is not available. From what we can tell, transcriptions will support multiple languages, although the user will have to manually select the language of the voice messages first to make them work. In other words, if the transcription language is different from the language of the voice message, WhatsApp will fail to recognise it.
On the upside, WABetaInfo notes that these transcriptions are always performed locally on the device by downloading relevant language packs, so you’ll be the only one reading those.
There’s no indication of exactly when WhatsApp will make audio transcriptions available to users. There are also no hints for now pointing toward the feature being under development on Android as well.
This isn’t the first time the feature was spotted, though. WABetaInfo shared a video demonstrating voice message transcriptions on WhatsApp for iOS back in September 2021. However, the trail went cold since then…until now.
