WhatsApp has been found working on a feature that transcribes voice notes on Android smartphones. WhatsApp will use your smartphone’s speech recognition feature to locally process voice notes that are sent and received, showing the transcribed text in the same chat window.
The feature, which is currently under development, could come in handy when it is not possible to listen to a voice message. It may also improve accessibility for hearing impaired users by allowing them to use the built-in voice note feature.
WABetaInfo identified a new feature in development on WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.7.8: the ability to transcribe voice notes. The Meta-owned chat platform is still developing on the functionality, so beta testers can’t try it out right now. However, the feature tracker has provided an image of what the feature could look like when it is deployed.
In the screenshot provided by WABetaInfo, we can see a pop-up card that explains how the functionality will work if it is released to users. A notice warns users that the app will need to download 150MB of new app data to their smartphone in order to allow voice note transcriptions.
WhatsApp will also inform users that it will use on-device speech recognition to give voice note transcripts while protecting user privacy and maintaining end-to-end message encryption. This also implies that previously obtained voice notes can be transcribed even when no data is available.
Also Read:
WhatsApp has been testing the same feature since May 2023, when version 23.9.0.70 of the WhatsApp Beta for iOS was released. The app also downloads these language packs to users’ smartphones, allowing transcription in many languages. According to the feature tracker, WhatsApp users on iOS can search through these transcripts because the text is indexed the same way ordinary messages are.
