On Thursday, WhatsApp declared that voice message transcripts would be made available. The new feature will be useful whether you’re on the go or in a noisy environment where you can’t hear a voicemail, according to the Meta-owned firm. With the release of Apple’s software update, iOS 17, last year, a similar functionality was revealed for Apple’s Message app, a major rival to WhatsApp.
When you are unable or unable to listen to voice messages, the new feature allows you to keep up with conversations by transcribing voice messages into text. According to WhatsApp, its transcripts are created on your device and are private.
You must go into your settings, choose the “Chats” section, and then hit “Voice message transcripts” to activate the new WhatsApp feature. You can then choose the language of your transcript.
Once the feature is enabled, you can long-press a voice message and then tap the “transcribe” option to obtain a transcript. Not every message will be automatically transcribed for you.
According to the corporation, voice message transcripts in a few languages will be made available worldwide in the upcoming weeks.
The supported languages on iOS vary depending on your operating system. English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic are among the languages that are supported if you have iOS 16 or later. You can use Danish, Finish, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Hebrew, and Thai if you have iOS 17 or later.
Transcripts in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian are available on Android devices.