WhatsApp is expanding its voice message transcription feature with support for more languages on Android. The update is rolling out to some beta testers and will let more users convert voice messages to text without playing the audio.
The new language support is being introduced with WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.37.5. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is adding more language variants for English, German, French, Italian and Japanese. These join languages that were already supported, including Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese and Russian.
Voice message transcriptions are particularly useful when users are somewhere they cannot listen to an audio message, such as during a meeting or in a noisy environment. Instead of playing the recording, users can view the spoken content as text below the voice message.
WhatsApp processes voice message transcriptions directly on the device using downloadable language packs. This means the audio does not need to be sent to third-party services for transcription. WhatsApp says voice message transcripts are generated on the user’s device and remain protected by end-to-end encryption.
Users can enable voice message transcripts through WhatsApp’s settings and select their preferred transcription language. After enabling the feature, they can press and hold a voice message and choose the transcription option to convert it into text. Language packs can also be downloaded to allow transcription when an internet connection is unavailable.
The expanded language support is being rolled out gradually, so the new options may not be available to every Android beta tester immediately. WhatsApp is expected to make the additional languages available to more users over the coming weeks, although there is currently no confirmed date for the wider stable release.
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