WhatsApp is Developing Audio Message Transcription Tool

WhatsApp users who try to avoid listening to audio messages may finally be in luck. The popularized messaging app is discovered to be developing a transcription tool that’ll allow audio messages to be read in the form of a standard text.

According to WABetaInfo, the WhatsApp beta for iOS 23.3.0.73 update includes notice that an audio transcription tool is in the works. Discovered within the update is a notification reading, “Why transcriptions may be unavailable.” Underneath are two bullet points. The first reads, “No words are recognized.” The other states “Transcriptions are not set to the language of their voice messages.”

While the feature is still not widely accessible, this introduction notice gives us a lot of contextual clues as to how it works. Apparently, the app will be able to identify voice messages and create a transcription of said message to be read instead of listened to. The app suggests it also has the ability to know when a voice message contains no words or is recorded in a different language.

It’s also said that voice messages are not uploaded to WhatsApp or Apple’s servers, maintaining privacy for both users. However, it’s noted that the feature may only work on “recent versions” of iOS.

As of the time of writing only the beta version of WhatsApp on iPhone has access to this feature. There’s no telling when a wider rollout on iOS is planned nor when Android users will begin to have access.