WhatsApp Voice to Text: How to Transcribe Voice Messages

The quickest way to turn a WhatsApp voice message into text is WhatsApp's own transcript feature: switch it on in Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts, then long-press any voice message and tap Transcribe. It is free and runs on your phone, but it supports a limited set of languages and is not built for long or noisy notes. For those, you export the voice note as a file and upload it to a transcription tool. This guide covers both routes on iPhone, Android, WhatsApp Business and PC.

Reading a voice message instead of playing it is useful far beyond saving time. You can catch the gist in a meeting, on a quiet train or at night without headphones, search for an address someone dictated last week, or follow a message in a language you read better than you hear.

How to turn on WhatsApp voice message transcripts

WhatsApp introduced voice message transcripts in late 2024 and has been widening support since. The feature is off by default, so most people never notice it.

On iPhone

1. Update WhatsApp from the App Store.
2. Open Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts and switch it on.
3. Choose the transcript language, meaning the language your contacts usually speak, not necessarily your phone's language.
4. In a chat, long-press a voice message and tap Transcribe.

Reports and WhatsApp's own troubleshooting suggest that on iOS the feature relies on Apple's speech recognition, so Siri and its language data may need to be enabled and downloaded. If the option does nothing, that is worth checking.

On Android

The steps are the same: Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts, switch it on, pick a language, and WhatsApp may download a language pack the first time. Then long-press a voice message and tap Transcribe. Once a message has been transcribed, the text appears under the audio bubble.

According to WhatsApp, transcripts are generated on your device, and nobody else, not even WhatsApp, can hear your voice messages or read the transcripts. The sender is not told that you transcribed their message.

Which languages WhatsApp can transcribe

Language support is the main limitation, and it differs between platforms. At the time of writing (October 2026), reported support looks roughly like this:

• Android: a short list that has been reported as English, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian.
• iPhone: a wider list that includes English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Arabic, with more on newer iOS versions.

WhatsApp lists the current languages in the app itself, and support changes with updates, so treat the list above as a snapshot and check the language picker in Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts for what your phone offers today.

One practical consequence: you can only choose one transcript language at a time. If your friends send voice notes in Spanish and your colleagues in English, you will be switching the setting back and forth, or living with failed transcripts for one of the two.

Fixing "Transcript unavailable"

The most common error is a grey "Transcript unavailable" note under the message. WhatsApp names a few causes, and they are worth checking in this order:

• Language mismatch. The message is in a different language from the one you picked. Change the transcript language and try again.
• Unsupported language. The language is not on the list for your platform. No setting will fix this; export the note instead (see below).
• Unclear audio. Heavy background noise, music, wind or very quiet speech can stop the model from recognising enough words.
• Outdated app or missing language data. Update WhatsApp, and on iPhone check that Siri and its language are set up.
• Still processing. Long notes can take a moment; wait a few seconds before giving up.

If the transcript appears but is mostly wrong, the cause is nearly always audio quality or a mixed-language message. Built-in transcripts handle one language per message; a note that switches between Portuguese and English mid-sentence tends to come out garbled.

WhatsApp Business, WhatsApp Web and desktop

WhatsApp Business. The Business app shares the same settings structure, and many users find the same Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts option there. Rollout has not always been simultaneous across both apps, so if you do not see it, update the app and check again later. For a business that receives many customer voice notes, the built-in feature is a convenience for reading, not a record: you cannot export transcripts in bulk, tag them or attach them to a support ticket.

WhatsApp Web and the desktop app. Built-in transcripts may not be available on WhatsApp Web or the Windows and Mac apps; the feature was designed for on-device recognition on phones, and desktop support has been patchy at best. If you need to transcribe WhatsApp audio on PC, there are two workable approaches:

1. On the desktop app or WhatsApp Web, open the message menu and look for a download option. Where it exists, it saves the voice note as an audio file you can upload anywhere.
2. If there is no download option, export the note from your phone (next section) and move the file to your computer by email, cloud drive or AirDrop.

Browser extensions that claim to transcribe inside WhatsApp Web do exist. Be cautious: they need permission to read your chats, which is a lot of access to grant a small third-party tool.

Exporting a WhatsApp voice note as a file

Exporting is the route for long notes, unsupported languages, or any time you want to keep the text. WhatsApp voice notes are Opus audio, saved as .opus or .ogg files. Menu names shift slightly between versions, but the options are:

• Share a single voice note (iPhone). Long-press the message, tap Forward, then the share icon to send it to Files, Mail, a cloud drive or another app.
• Share a single voice note (Android). Long-press the message, then use the share icon at the top of the screen, or forward it to yourself or to a "notes to self" chat. Some file managers also show the folder where WhatsApp stores voice notes.
• Export the whole chat. Open the chat, tap the contact or group name (iPhone) or the three-dot menu > More (Android), choose Export chat and Attach media / Include media. You get a text file of the conversation plus every voice note as a separate .opus file. Export limits apply to very long chats with lots of media.

If an app refuses .opus, convert it first with our free Opus to MP3 converter or VLC. The guide to audio to text converter formats explains which formats most tools accept and why Opus sometimes trips older software.

Transcribing an exported voice note

Once you have the file, any transcription service that accepts Opus will do. Audiotexta's WhatsApp voice to text tool is built for this case: upload the .opus file in a browser on your phone or computer, and you get editable text with timestamps.

It is worth the extra step when:

• The note is long. A ten-minute voice note about a project or a family plan reads much faster as paragraphs you can skim and search.
• The language is not supported by WhatsApp, or the speaker mixes languages. Automatic language detection handles far more languages than the built-in feature.
• Several people are speaking, for example a recorded conversation forwarded into the chat. Speaker labels separate who said what.
• You need it in another language. Translation turns a voice note in Portuguese into readable English, or the other way round.
• You want to keep it. Export to TXT for free (DOCX or PDF on Pro), or paste it into a ticket, CRM or notes app.

The editor plays the audio alongside the text, so you can click a sentence and hear it to check a name or a number. If you receive voice notes in batches, forward them to yourself and upload several at once rather than one by one. For dictating your own messages instead of reading other people's, see our voice to text and dictation guide.

Audiotexta is one option among several. Telegram has its own transcription for Premium users, general tools such as Otter or TurboScribe accept uploaded files, and technically minded users can run the open-source Whisper model on their own computer for free. Choose by language support, privacy and how often you need it.

Built-in transcripts vs a transcription tool

For a two-minute message in a supported language, the built-in transcript wins: it is instant and private. For anything longer, multilingual or worth keeping, the file route gives you more.

Privacy and etiquette

A voice message is personal data about the sender, not just about you. A few sensible rules:

• Prefer on-device first. If WhatsApp's own transcript works, nothing leaves your phone, which is the most private option available.
• Check where uploaded audio goes. With any online tool, look at how long files are kept and whether you can delete them. Delete the audio once you have the text if you do not need it.
• Be careful with work and health topics. For customer voice notes or anything sensitive, your employer's data protection rules apply, and some organisations require approved providers only.
• Ask before sharing. Forwarding someone's transcribed voice note to a third party is the same as forwarding the audio. If it was meant for you, keep it that way.

WhatsApp voice to text has gone from a workaround to a built-in feature in a couple of years. Turn on transcripts, set the right language, and keep the export route in your back pocket for the long, noisy or multilingual notes that the phone cannot handle on its own.