The WhatsApp messaging application is seen on a phone screen.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
WhatsApp introduced voice messaging feature way back in 2013. Since then, it has grown in popularity in all age groups. In India, non-tech-savvy senior citizens prefer this feature than typing texts on the messenger.
Here, the user has to simply press the mic button, speak a few words and just hit the send button. Now, more than seven billion voice messages are exchanged on WhatsApp every day worldwide.
Now, the Meta-owned company is planning to introduce the transcription option to the voice messaging feature. This new option is now available on the latest Android beta Android v2.24.7.8 on Google Play Store, reported WABetaInfo, a WhatsApp community blog.
This is in the testing phase and, as you can see in the screen-grab (below), testers have to download a 150MB update to get the transcription option.
WhatsApp voice transcription feature.
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo
The transcription option is a handy feature for users who prefer reading messages than on the speaker of the phone or wasting time looking for earphones.
For instance, reading out aloud a series of messages with a speaker on in a public place is a nuisance. With the transcription feature, one can read the content of the voice message without troubling the public around and reply with a text.
WhatsApp also noted that the messenger app will use the speech recognition feature of the phone to transcribe the voice message. The latter won't be sent to any cloud server as such and transcription function will be performed on the device itself. It is fully end-to-end encrypted.
In a related development, WhatsApp is testing new chat filter feature on the messenger app.
With the new chat filter, it plans to introduce three separate tabs-- all, unread and groups-- for easy access of messages.
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