By Kavita Mistry 
WhatsApp is the most used instant messaging application across platforms. According to Statista, as of June 2024, WhatsApp is used by over 2.96 billion unique users. In fact, in January 2025, WhatsApp was the most downloaded app, with over 57 million downloads, with the second position going to Snapchat (29.49 million). India takes the top spot in the number of WhatsApp users by country, with over 853 million active users.
Over the years, WhatsApp has gained several features, allowing users to create and use stickers, add music to WhatsApp Status, apply different themes, use ChatGPT and Meta AI, and much more. Recently, Meta has updated its instant messaging platform with a bunch of cool new features. One of the highlights of the update is the ability to generate voice message transcripts on Channels. In this guide, we will share with you the steps that are required to turn on WhatsApp voice message transcripts and use them. Let’s jump right into it.
What is WhatsApp voice message transcript?
A voice message transcript is the text form of your voice message. This means that whatever is said in the voice note or message will be presented in written form. This is a new feature but isn’t enabled by default. You need to enable it to use the voice message transcript feature. The message recipient can only see the voice message transcript on WhatsApp, while the sender can’t see it. The feature was already available for group chats, but now it is available for Channels as well.
To ensure privacy and security, all of the voice message transcripts are generated on the device and are protected by end-to-end encryption. This is a nice feature to have if you are on an important Channel but can’t listen to the voice message. There are a few important things to keep in mind.
- Only English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian languages are supported on Android.
- iOS 16+, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic are supported. The following additional languages are supported on iOS 17+: Danish, Finish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, and Thai.
- On iOS, before using the WhatsApp voice message transcript feature, you need to ensure that Siri is enabled. If Siri isn’t enabled prior to turning on the voice message transcript feature, you will need to download the appropriate language when turning on the transcript feature.
How to use the WhatsApp voice message transcripts feature?
Before you see voice message transcripts on WhatsApp, you first need to enable the feature by following the steps mentioned below. Note that the steps are similar for both Android and iOS.
Turn WhatsApp voice message transcripts on or off
- Make sure you have updated your device to the latest version of WhatsApp.
- Launch WhatsApp.
- In the Chats section, tap on the three-dot menu icon and select Settings.
- Select Chats from the list of options.
- Toggle on Voice message transcripts.
- In the prompt “Read your voice messages with transcripts,” tap on Choose language.
- Select any one of the four supported languages. In our case, we will choose English and click on Set up now. Do note that WhatsApp will download the English language pack, which is 136MB in size. So, make sure that your mobile device has sufficient internet data or connect to a Wi-Fi.
- If you wish to change the transcript language, then you can do it anytime by tapping the three-dot menu icon > Settings > Chats > Transcript language. Also, do note that if you turn the voice message transcripts off, it will reset your transcript language.
How to view WhatsApp voice message transcripts
On Android
- After turning on the voice message transcript on your device, tap and hold a voice message.
- Tap on the three-dot icon and select Transcribe.
- The transcription feature will take some time to do what is needed.
- Tap the downward arrow to read more of the transcription.
On iOS
- After turning on the voice message transcript on your device, tap and hold a voice message, then select Transcribe.
- The transcription feature will take some time to transcribe the voice message.
- Tap the downward icon in the message to expand the transcription.
- Do note that your iPhone should be running iOS 16 or newer, and Siri must be enabled.
What do you do if you receive an error?
There is a chance that during the transcription process, you may receive a “Transcript unavailable” error. This could happen because of the following reasons:
- Your transcript language setting doesn’t match the language of the voice message.
- Some words aren’t recognized, possibly due to background noise.
- The voice message language isn’t supported.
- Voice message transcripts may be inaccurate.
Let us know in the comments below if you come across any issues with using the WhatsApp voice message transcript feature.