Have you ever desperately wished that you could put down your headphones and read all those annoying WhatsApp voice messages like you read normal text messages? If you’re an Android fan, you might be in luck because the option is probably right at your doorstep. Voice message transcripts found in Apple iPhones have been available for over a year, but news of a beta Android release suggests the feature is about to be released.
Digging deep into the WhatsApp beta version 2.24.7.7 archives, The Spandroid officials hinted at the existence of voice message and transcription features. Here’s the exciting part: Instead, the activation of transcripts is running as a background process, something like a 150MB download, which strongly indicates that the app is taking advantage of your device’s embedded speech recognition engine. WhatsApp is protecting personal data privacy. That’s why WhatsApp has decided to make transcripts end-to-end encrypted, like your messages.
Although there has been no official word yet on when this feature will be available to the wider Android audience, its presence in beta seems to indicate that such a day will theoretically come. This long-desired project will, no doubt, make it a more convenient way for a larger part of users to be able to access information while listening to music or in noisy environments.
