A new WhatsApp update will save people from listening to long voice notes.
Instead, the app will now automatically transcribe those recordings, giving people a text version of what the other person has said.
The feature is intended to let people “keep up with conversations if you’re in a loud environment, or receive a long voice message”, WhatsApp said in its announcement.
WhatsApp introduced voice notes more than a decade ago. But they continue to be controversial, proving useful to many users but leading others to complain about being forced to listen to long and sometimes rambling messages from their friends.
In its announcement, WhatsApp said that voice notes were “personal” and that there is “something special about hearing your loved one’s voice even when you’re far away”. But it recognised that there can be problems with listening to them, particularly when on the move or in difficult environments.
The transcriptions are generated on the device so that nobody – including WhatsApp – can read them. As such, they are subject to the same security features as traditional messages, which are end-to-end encrypted so that they can only be seen by the sender and recipient.
Transcriptions can be turned on or off by going into the settings screen, choosing “chats” and then “voice message transcripts”. That same page will allow users to choose their transcript language.
Messages themselves can then be transcribed by long pressing on a voice note and clicking the “transcribe” option.
WhatsApp suggested that those features are likely to change over time, writing in its announcement that it is “excited to build on this experience and make it even better and more seamless”.
In Apple’s iMessage, for instance, those transcriptions are automatically generated, so that they will appear alongside long voice notes. That was introduced last year with iOS 17.
WhatsApp’s transcriptions will roll out “globally over the coming weeks with a few select languages to start though we plan to add more over the coming months”, it said.
