It’s usually WhatsApp that is catching up to the likes of Telegram in terms of new features. But this time, WhatsApp has received a major upgrade before Telegram.
WhatsApp now offers a solution for those who prefer reading over listening to voice messages. The new feature transcribes voice notes into text, allowing users to follow conversations even when they can’t listen to audio. This should help when you’re in a noisy environment, or on the go.
This on-device transcription ensures privacy, as neither WhatsApp nor any third party can access the content of the messages.
Initially, Android users will have access to English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian transcriptions. iOS 16 users will also have French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic options. iOS 17 and later adds Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, and Thai.
Since Urdu is not supported in this feature yet, voice messages in Urdu will not be transcribed properly. However, once Meta adds support for either Hindi or Urdu, it should start working better. It is unclear when these languages are coming to voice message transcripts.
To enable this feature, navigate to Settings, then Chats, where you’ll find the transcription option. To transcribe a specific message, long-press it and select ‘transcribe’.
Meta says the global rollout will occur over the next few weeks, so don’t fret if you don’t have the feature just yet. Additional languages are also coming later on.
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