New WhatsApp Update Brings Advanced Voice Note Transcription

The new voice note feature converts audio to text without compromising on quality, privacy, and its long-known encryption.

WhatsApp has solved something that its global users did not realize required solving. The audio message and voice note feature on WhatsApp often causes more complications than reducing them. With the latest WhatsApp update, users will now be able to get voice note transcriptions of the audio messages they receive or send.

This feature is a revolutionary solution for situations where the audio cannot be played, is inaudible or is too noisy to hear. In professional situations like meetings, the audio message can now be accessed without risking the revelation of personal information, one of the biggest causes of embarrassment.

Apart from preventing negative outlooks, the new voice note transcription feature also helps those with impaired hearing carry conversations with those who may not be able to type a response in certain situations. This move elevates WhatsApp as a tool that not only complies with but also enhances the ADA regulatory requirements.

Activating the tool is also quite simple. Users can enable or disable the feature by visiting the Settings section on WhatsApp, clicking on Chats, and then dragging the on/off button on Voice Message Transcripts. Upon receiving any audio message, the user can simply long-press on the audio file and click transcribe.

Users can also select the preferred language in which they want the transcription to be done. While the languages are not final, the initial launch has enough regional languages to help the overall consumer base of India.

Privacy is one of the biggest concerns for users, especially if they use audio messages. The new transcription feature comes studded with WhatsApp’s legacy-old USP of end-to-end encryption. As the transcription process happens directly on the device without any third-party involvement, there is no chance of someone bypassing WhatsApp’s encryptions. Not even WhatsApp can read or listen to the messages sent between users on its application.

One thing that nobody knows yet is whether the original sender can perform a ‘delete for everyone’ action on the transcribed audio. While the original sender can delete all other messages, the audio-to-text conversion is triggered by the receiver only. This will be tested once the feature rolls out on our mobile devices. The success of this feature can place WhatsApp on top of the existing social media apps.