How to Transcribe a WhatsApp Voice Note to Text

Someone sent you a two-minute voice note and you'd rather read it. WhatsApp may already do that for you, so start there.

If it can't, get the voice note out of WhatsApp and run it through a free transcriber in your browser. Both routes are below.

1. Try WhatsApp's own Transcribe

WhatsApp added voice message transcripts in November 2024. Its help page says they're "generated on your device", and your voice messages stay end-to-end encrypted.

On Android the feature starts switched off. To turn it on:

• iPhone: tap Settings, then Chats, and turn on Voice Message Transcripts. Tap Choose language and pick the language most of your voice notes arrive in.
• Android: go to Settings, then Chats, turn on Voice Message Transcripts, choose a language, then tap Set up now or Wait for Wi-Fi.

Then tap and hold a voice note and tap Transcribe. On Android, Transcribe sits under More options (the three dots).

The limits, from WhatsApp's help page:

• Android handles "only English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian".
• iPhone needs iOS 16 or newer with Siri turned on. iOS 16 covers 12 languages and iOS 17 covers 20.
• Only the recipient sees transcripts. "The sender can't see the transcripts."
• Windows doesn't have it, and on WhatsApp Web it "may not be available to you yet".

If you received the note on your phone, it's in a supported language and you only need to read it, this is the quickest route. You're done.

2. Reasons to reach for a file instead

Carry on if any of these sound like you:

• The language isn't on the list. That bites hardest on Android, with four languages.
• Your chats switch languages. WhatsApp makes you pick one transcript language for every note. The shinmuscat transcriber detects the language for each file on its own.
• You want a file or timestamps. WhatsApp's help page doesn't describe copying the transcript or saving it as a file. You may want TXT for notes, or SRT or VTT subtitles.
• You're on a computer.
• Your iPhone runs iOS 15 or older, or Siri is off.
• You sent the note. Senders don't get transcripts.

3. Get the voice note out of WhatsApp

WhatsApp's help pages document one way to save a voice note as a file: Export chat.

iPhone: open the chat, tap the contact or group name, then tap Export chat. Choose With selected media… so you can take just the voice note, rather than With all media. Pick Save to Files. WhatsApp exports it as a ZIP file.

Android: open the chat, tap More options (the three dots), then More, then Export chat. Tap Include media and send it to your email or a files app. WhatsApp's page says "the most recent media sent will be added", so an older voice note may not come through.

On a computer: WhatsApp Web's export leaves media out. Its help page says "Media isn't included, unlike exporting chats on your mobile device." Export on your phone instead, then move the file across by email or a cloud drive.

Then:

• Unzip it in your Files app and find the audio file inside.
• View once notes won't work. WhatsApp says "View once messages will not be exported."
• Ask first. If the voice note is from someone else, ask before you transcribe it.

4. Open the transcriber and pick the file

Open the free media transcriber and pick the audio file. It reads common audio formats, including OGG and Opus.

Most recent browsers can read the file. If yours can't, the page tells you: try Chrome or Edge on a computer.

5. Keep the tab open while it works

The first run downloads a speech model once, and the page shows its size while it downloads. Keep the tab open and the screen on until it finishes, because phones pause pages in the background.

The steps are the same as when you transcribe a voice memo from your iPhone, which walks through the tool in more detail.

6. Check names and slang

Read the text against the voice note and fix names, slang and numbers by hand. It doesn't label speakers, and it doesn't translate: you get text in the language that was spoken.

7. Take the text with you

Tap Copy, or download Plain text .txt for notes. TXT has the words only, with no timestamps. Pick SubRip subtitles .srt or WebVTT subtitles .vtt if you want a time on each line.

SRT vs VTT: which file to pick is written for TikTok captions, but its advice works for any subtitle file.

What stays on your phone

Your files never leave your device. Your browser downloads the speech model from Hugging Face and some supporting code from jsDelivr, and the page loads Google Analytics. None of these sends anything from your file.

Next step

Got a voice note WhatsApp won't transcribe? Export it, unzip it and open the free media transcriber. It's free, with no signup.