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The transcription of audio messages to text It is something that has been available for a long time with tools like LuzIA, Transcribe me, capable of taking the audio of a voice message and responding with its transcription. But both services (the first, Spanish; the second, Argentine) no longer function as just another contact within WhatsApp; They now require installing an additional application. Yes, the newcomer continues to maintain this function Zapia: we add him as a contact, we forward him the audio, he returns us a complete transcript.
But no matter how irrelevant the audio content is, If we use one of these tools we continue to share private information with an unknown third party, which is not ideal. It is preferable that the transcription be done on the same computer, within WhatsApp.
Already last March the first indication had appeared that the WhatsApp itself is testing a transcription tool integrated into the messenger, and now enabled it for beta version 2.24.13.9 on Android. Those who have the normal version will not see this function for now; Those who want to join the beta program must do so through the Google Play store.
Now, when a voice message arrives and we have the function enabled, shows a small banner below the player informing you that you can transcribe the audio.
If we accept, will download an aggregate (the transcription engine) and from there, every time we receive an audio, It will directly show the transcription in the same message, along with the audio player of each message. It is even possible to transcribe old audios: just select the message and go to the three-dot menu to choose the “Transcribe” option, which will add the audio text to the message.
If for some reason we do not want WhatsApp to transcribe the audios, the function can be deactivated from Settings>Chats.
In the tests we did, however, the engine’s ability to convert any audio into text is very far from other text-to-speech applications: while Transcribeme, Luzia or Zapia (among many others) understand all the audio, or the huge majority, This version of WhatsApp, at least in the beta, has many limitations; They will surely improve it until it is ready for general availability, something for which there are still no specific dates.
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