WhatsApp sounds are dividing the population like onions on tortillas or pineapples on pizza. There are those who hate them to death, there are those who use them like walkie-talkies all the time, there is no middle ground. Be that as it may, the truth is that to learn the content of a voice memo, you need to listen to it at normal speed or faster. This may not always be possible or we may not feel it directly, so WhatsApp is already working on a solution.

automatic transcription. In fact, WhatsApp is developing this functionality and has already dropped hints in the code of the latest Android beta version (WhatsApp 2.24.7.7). As TheSpAndroid blog announced and we were able to confirm from Xataka by decompiling and analyzing the APK code, in this version you can read a very interesting sequence of strings (in English) that says the following (text translated into Spanish):

Adapt

150 MB of new application data will be downloaded to enable transcripts.

Activate.

Read the transcripts before listening to them.

WhatsApp uses your device’s voice recognition to provide end-to-end encrypted transcripts. More information.

Converting to text…

Transcript not available

Do you want to convert this message to text? Enable transcripts

Screenshot of WhatsApp APK code where transcription is mentioned | Image: Xataka

Screenshot of WhatsApp APK code where transcription is mentioned | Image: Xataka

A little more. Given what we have seen, the transcriptions will require us to download 150 MB of data (probably some kind of language pack) and will use the voice recognition system already present on our device, which we can already use to dictate, for example. voice text. Unfortunately, it is not known in which language or languages ​​this function will be available, and based on the code we can see, this information is not mentioned anywhere.

A necessary function. Voice recordings are a faster and less intrusive communication system than calls, but are quite cumbersome in their own right as they require the recipient to listen to the entire voice memo to get all the information and do not allow for reading diagonally to quickly review the content. Automated transcription would solve this problem on paper, but it can be expected that it will not be perfect and its performance will depend heavily on recording conditions. And in this sense, every mobile phone, every microphone is a world. But this is one step.

In the oven for now. Although it is a very interesting feature, it cannot be said that it is in the beta or testing phase yet. We can confirm that there are hints of it being developed in the APK code but we can’t talk about release dates yet. It probably won’t be long before it pops up from time to time for now. By the way, it is always possible to use an external tool like LuzIA.

Image | Xataka

in Xataka | It is technically possible to cross-send messages between WhatsApp and Telegram. Whether it will happen or not is a separate issue.