Question :
I have some friends and acquaintances that prefer to not send me text messages in WhatsApp, but they nearly always send me voice messages… I get frustrated by them, because I can’t speed-read-scan those for the clue, I can’t easily find the info back later on and I can’t listen to them if I don’t have my headphones nearby…

Is there an easy way to have them transcribed ?

Answer:
Yes there is, and it is built-in into WhatsApp since november 2024… however, WhatsApp is not releasing it worldwide everywhere all at once… so, it may be available for you already, but you might also need to wait for it a little longer…

To switch on the Transcribe-function in WhatsApp do this :

• make sure your iPhone is running iOS 16 or newer ( since the fall of 2024 we’re on iOS18 )
  Note : in iOS 16 only English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic are supported ; in iOS 17 Danish, Finish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish and Thai were added.
• make sure that Siri is turned on
  to turn on Siri, do these :
  – goto Settings.app > Siri > Talk to Siri > make sure that “Press Side Button for Siri” is turned ON
  – goto Settings.app > Siri > Messaging with Siri > READ MESSAGES > Add Language… > make sure that the languages that you frequently use to communicate are activated
  – goto Seetings.app > Siri > [scroll down] > Apps > WhatsApp > make sure that all options are switched ON
• then, open WhatsApp.app on your iPhone
• open the main ‘Chats’ screen ( that’s were your most recent chat conversations are listed )
  • click on Settings ( bottom-right ; with the sprocket/gear-icon )
  • in the ‘Settings’ screen that opens, scroll slightly down and click on ‘Chats’
  • in the ‘Chats’ page that opens, you’ll see an option named ‘Voice Message Transcripts’
    Note : this option will only be visible if WhatsApp has released it for your you, so if you don’t see it (yet), comback to this page later to chack wether it’s available for you…
  • switch ON ‘Voice Message Transcripts’ to activate it, and choose your Transcript Language
    
    Then, to create transcripts of voice messages, do this :
  • open WhatsApp.app on your iPhone
  • open the ‘Chats’ screen ( that’s were your most recent chat conversations are listed )
  • click on the chat that you’ve received the voice message in ( so, locate the voice message )
  • click & hold on the voice message
  • click ‘Transcribe’ when it appears
  • click the smal triangular arrow (the downward pointing angle) to expand the transcription
  • now, the transcription will be shown…
    Note : it might take some time before the transcription will appear
  • That’s it !
    enjoy 😉
    
    Note : if you get an error saying ‘Transcript unavailable’, this may be because of one of the following :
    – you have set te wrong transcript language
  • the voice message language isn’t supported (yet)
  • you have set the wrong transcript language
  • the audio quality it too poor to be transcribed ( e.g. due to background noise )