WhatsApp was rolling out a feature to transcribe voice messages. Through this enhancement, users who are unable to listen to voice messages, or prefer reading text over listening to audio, can now easily access the content of voice notes. Voice message transcripts are particularly useful in noisy environments or situations where listening to audio is inconvenient, ensuring an enhanced communication regardless of the user’s circumstances or surroundings. This feature has finally been confirmed by Mark Zuckerberg through his official WhatsApp channel, indicating that it is going to be widely available.
Mark Zuckerberg announced that transcripts for voice messages are coming to WhatsApp. To enable voice message transcripts, eligible users can navigate through the app by going to Settings > Chats > Voice Message Transcripts, where they can toggle the feature on. In some cases, WhatsApp may prompt users to enable voice message transcription directly when they receive a voice message. These transcripts are generated entirely on-device, ensuring that nobody else can hear your voice notes or access the transcribed content, preserving privacy and security. When enabling the feature, users will be prompted to download a language data package of their choice, with current options including English, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, and Hindi.
It is very important to note that it is required to download an additional data package to ensure these transcriptions are generated on-device. This is possible thanks to an in-house solution, allowing WhatsApp to transcribe messages even without an active Internet connection. By keeping the transcription process local to the device, WhatsApp ensures that all transcribed voice messages remain confidential and are not exposed to external servers. The on-device generation of transcriptions definitely improves the speed and efficiency of the transcription process, as it eliminates the need for data to be sent back and forth over the Internet. This approach also aligns with WhatsApp’s ongoing commitment to user privacy and data protection, setting it apart from other messaging platforms that might rely on cloud-based transcription services. Additionally, this feature is designed to support multiple languages, although WhatsApp announced through the official blog post the possibility to expand its language offerings further and optimize the accuracy of transcription in the future.
A voice message transcripts feature is available after installing the latest updates of WhatsApp for Android from the Google Play Store, and it is rolling out to even more people over the coming weeks.
