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How to transcribe a WhatsApp voice message
A six-minute voice note is six minutes you cannot skim, cannot search and cannot read in a meeting. As text it becomes twenty seconds.
Voice messages are also the easiest case there is for automatic transcription, for reasons that have nothing to do with the software.
Transcribe for free60 minutes a month at no cost, no card and no sign-up to try it.
Step by step
- Export the voice noteHold the message, choose share or forward, and save it to your files. It comes out as an OPUS or M4A file depending on the phone.
- Open the site on the same deviceIt runs in the phone browser, so you do not need to move the file to a computer first.
- Upload itOPUS and M4A are both accepted directly, along with MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC and AAC. No conversion step.
- Read or copy the textIt comes back punctuated and in paragraphs, which matters for a message recorded in one breath.
Why voice notes transcribe so well
A voice message is close to the ideal recording: one person, phone held near the mouth, no crosstalk, no second voice at a different distance. Those are exactly the conditions that decide accuracy, and a voice note has all of them by default.
The usual weak points remain: proper names, place names and numbers. If the message contains an address or an amount, check it against the audio.
Someone else's voice
A voice note you received is another person's recording. Transcribing it to read it is one thing; publishing or forwarding the text is another, and worth thinking about before you do it.
Each message uses its own minutes from your monthly quota, and they are processed one at a time, so a chat full of long notes adds up faster than it looks.
Frequent questions
What format are WhatsApp voice messages?
Usually OPUS, sometimes M4A depending on the phone. Both upload directly with no conversion.
Can I do it from my phone?
Yes. The site runs in the phone browser, so you can export the note and upload it without a computer.
Why not use WhatsApp's own transcription?
Use it if you have it. Availability depends on the language, the phone and the app version, and it does not give you a text file you can keep or edit.
Is there a length limit?
Not per message. The limit is the monthly minutes of your plan: 60 on the free plan, 300 on Pro, none on Max.