WhatsApp recently added tons of new updates to its status feature, but that is not the end of it as there are many more upgrades to come. One of those is going to be the ability to transcribe voice messages.
This feature was originally uncovered back in September 2021 when WhatsApp first started working on it, but the development was interrupted for unknown reasons. However, the latest beta version of WhatsApp for iOS (23.3.0.73) has revealed that the company has started working on it once again.
As always, the news comes from the WhatsApp feature tracker blog WABetaInfo.Â
As the screenshot shows, WhatsApp has started working on a notice that shows when transcription is unavailable for voice messages. It says that transcripts don’t work when the app doesn’t recognize any words or if transcripts are not set to the language in the sender’s messages.
It also gives you an option to change languages for transcriptions.
These voice note transcriptions are always processed on the device locally by downloading the necessary language packs. They are never shared with WhatsApp or Apple, ensuring that you remain the only one who can access the content of your voice notes. Note that this feature may only be available on recent versions of iOS.
Such a feature should come in handy when you receive a voice message and are unable to listen to it at the moment, like while playing music over Bluetooth speakers.
There is no launch date for this feature yet, but since it has entered beta testing once again, it should roll out eventually.
