I have to admit that I do use WhatsApp for communication with certain relatives and friends. Some of them have the habit of sending voice messages instead of text messages.
If you are like me, you dislike this a lot. I have to play the messages to listen to them, and may have to replay them, if something is not clear. To play a message, I need to either use headphones or play the message in a location where it does not bother anyone else.
Related:
Voice Message Transcripts
WhatsApp has announced a new feature that puts an end to this. It is called voice message transcripts and will transcribe voice messages to text for you.
Here are the details:
- Voice Message Transcripts are disabled by default.
- Long-press on a message and select the transcribe option to start the process.
- WhatsApp says the processing happens on the local device.
The feature is rolling out to all users of WhatsApp in the coming weeks. To enable it, go to Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts. If you do not see the option at this point, check at a later point again.
You may also set the preferred language for the transcriptions. Note that this may require a download of a language pack to the device for the selected language.
Once enabled, long-press any voice message and select transcribe to get a text version of the message.
WhatsApp notes that there may be issues during the process. The app displays “Transcript unavailable” as an error message then.
This may have different causes, including:
- The transcript language does not match the voice message language.
- Some words are not recognized, likely because of background noise.
- The language of the voice message is not supported.
Closing Words
The new option is useful, but it still requires manual action for each voice message. It would be great if WhatsApp would implement an auto-transcribe feature, as it would improve the process further.
Do you use WhatsApp? What is your take on the feature? Feel free to leave a comment down below.