It has happened to many who use the WhatsApp. You are in a conversation with a friend, family member or partner and you see the message Recording audio. Seconds turn to minutes and you may think, “Am I going to have to listen to all that?” Fortunately Meta has implemented a solution for those who prefer written communication over the messaging service – or who do not have the time – to recently announced the feature of transcribing voice messages to text.
This is a function that the company is just implementing globally for iOS and Android, so if you no longer have it, you will be soon to receive it. At the moment it has four languages available on Android – Spanish, English, Portuguese and Russian -, although WhatsApp indicates that in the coming months it will incorporate other languages.
Meanwhile, at Apple, language selection depends on the operating system, with iOS 16+ allowing the use of English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Arabic, while iOS 17 +incorporates Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish and Thai.
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For those concerned about their privacy, WhatsApp highlighted that transcripts are generated on the user’s own device, so no other person or even the same company will be able to listen to or read your personal messages.
How to activate voice transcriptions
It is important to note that to use the transcription function one has to activate it, a process that varies a little depending on whether you use iPhone or Android.
To activate it on Android you have to follow the following steps:
- In WhatsApp, open Settings.
- Tap Chats.
- Turn Voice Message Transcriptions on or off.
- When you turn on Voicemail Transcriptions, select your Transcription Language.
To activate it on iPhone the steps are as follows:
- In WhatsApp, open Settings.
- Tap Chats.
- Turn Voice Message Transcriptions on or off.
- When you turn on Voicemail Transcriptions, select the Transcription Language.
Important: For message transcription to work you must have Siri activated and compatible with WhatsApp, which you can do with the following steps:
- On your iPhone, go to Settings and tap Siri & Search.
- Activate Side button to use Siri or Home button to use Siri.
- Scroll down and tap WhatsApp.
- Turn on Use with Ask Siri.
This feature is only available for users running iOS 16 and up.
How to view voicemail transcripts
To transcribe a voice message you just have to press it until a series of options appear, the first of which will say “Transcribe.” It is possible that the first time you will be asked to select the language of the voice message to download it, a process that will take a few minutes.
WhatsApp points out that if you get the error message “Transcript not available” it could be for the following reasons:
- The transcription language settings do not match the voice message language settings.
- Some words may not be recognized due to background noise.
- Voice message language is not supported.
They also warn that it is possible that the voice transcriptions are not 100% accurate, a common risk with this type of program.