Whatsapp gives its voice messages a major update.
The total of six innovations will be introduced step by step in the coming weeks.
Users of the beta version can already use some of the new functions.
Play voice messages outside of chat
Manon Priebe
editor.
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With this function, Whatsapp wants to facilitate the multitasking that many heavy users of smartphones do: Users will soon be able to listen to a voice message and at the same time read and write messages in another chat.
Pause and resume voice message recording
Until now, voice messages had to be recorded without a break.
You couldn't afford to pause for thought if you didn't want to let the other person be silent - meaningless chatter in voice messages was often the result.
This changes with the update: you press the microphone as usual in the chat, and a narrow menu bar opens with a swipe up.
Here you can delete the current recording, send it - but also pause it and continue it again.
Waveform visualization
Above all, looks nice: the sound of the voice message will soon be displayed in visual form.
According to Whatsapp, this should make it easier to trace the course of the recording.
Listen to recording before sending
If you find yourself wondering what you just said, what it sounds like, or just like hearing your own voice, this new feature is perfect.
In the future, Whatsapp will let users listen to their own voice messages again before they have to press “send”.
Playback from last heard position
The solution for people who receive half audio books as voice messages: With the new function, voice messages can be paused and later continued at the appropriate point.
Fast replay on forwarded messages
This is not a bug, but a new feature.
Messages have been able to be played at one and a half times or twice the speed for some time.
This is now also possible with forwarded voice messages.
In its blog post about the new functions, Whatsapp proudly states that seven billion voice messages are now sent via Messenger every day.
The function has been around since 2013. Whatsapp belongs to the Facebook parent company Meta, as does Instagram, Facebook Messenger and the eponymous social network.