Normally, when WhatsApp releases a new feature, it does not focus on only one platform. Many new features of the instant messaging app come to both iOS and Android OS. However, the company has released an exclusive feature for the iOS platform only. From the look of things, this new feature may not come to the Android platform anytime soon.
The company has submitted a new update via the TestFlight Beta Program. This new update comes with the version number 2.23.9.70. This update which is currently available for some beta testers is called Voice Message Transcription.
What is Voice Message Transcription? 
The voice message transcription feature transcribes voice messages to texts so that the receiver can read it instead of listening to the audio. This becomes very handy when the user happens to be at a place where they cannot play the audio. This will help make communication a lot more flexible and accessible.
This feature is currently available to beta testers who downloaded through the TestFlight app on iOS. WhatsApp is currently sending the new feature to some beta testers and may include more testers in the coming days.
Gizchina News of the week
How Voice Message Transcription Works 
When the user activates the feature, they will see a bubble below the voice messages. This makes it a lot easier for the user to read the content of the voice message. After updating, this feature will become enabled by default. However, the user can deactivate it if they don’t want to use it. To deactivate it, just open your WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Voice Message Transcript.
It is worth noting that this feature always preserves end-to-end encryption. This is because the transcription takes place on the users’ phones. It makes use of the language packs that already exist on the device. This means, transcription will not be available for all iOS devices. It makes use of the latest APIs of the iOS 16 which makes it possible for the voice transcriptions to process locally on the device.
Search Option
With the transcription feature, users can also be able to search for a particular content within the voice messages. The device automatically indexes the transcribed voice note in order to make this possible. With this, if a user has a lot of voice notes and they are looking for a particular content, they can easily search for it. All the user has to do is to type a particular keyword they remember within the voice note in the search bar. The transcription will then highlight the particular text from that particular voice message. This will save a lot of time since the user will not have to play all the audio files one after the other to search for a particular message.
As we stated earlier, this feature is exclusive to iOS devices, at least, for the time being. It is currently out for some beta tester and will roll out to the general public in the next few weeks.
