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Ask HN: Can you please add transcription to vocal messages in messaging apps?

75 pointsby nassimsoftwareover 3 years ago
I know that there are employees of big tech companies lurking around here. I have a feature request.<p>Can you please add the ability to see the transcript of a vocal message on messaging apps like Teams, Signal, Telegram, Messenger, Discord, Slack, Whatsapp, etc?<p>I know that live transcription is already a thing so it must be feasible, right?<p>This feature would be super useful to see what was said without having to playback a bunch of vocal messages.<p>I had the idea of doing this myself a long time ago but I basically needed to recreate the entire messaging infrastructure just to add this feature. So I donate the idea here.

15 comments

lowkjover 3 years ago
100% agree, personally I just prefer typing but seems like I am not in the majority. I very often receive audio replies to my typed messages and it’s very frustrating. 70% of the time, I’m not in a position where I can easily listen to the audio vs just reading text. The other 30% of the time I’m simply annoyed as I do not want to be forced to listen to the audio.
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cianmmover 3 years ago
This seems like such an obvious Appley feature for iMessage, especially now that transcription can be done on-device.
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trampishover 3 years ago
This would be a big step forward in improving accessibility for the hard of hearing.
zwogover 3 years ago
There are several Telegram bots for this. But of course very questionable in terms of privacy. I had the idea to write one myself, I found an open source project to host it myself, but I don&#x27;t remember the name.<p>Fortunately, the voice messages have largely stopped with my contacts, so I didn&#x27;t pursue it any furth
solarkraftover 3 years ago
Please. It’s so (seemingly) obvious that I don’t understand why it’s not a thing yet. These people aren’t idiots, are they? This <i>is</i> obvious, isn’t it? Is it organizational failure? Or is the technology really, actually, not there yet?
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peterhiover 3 years ago
Oh yes, I&#x27;ve forgotten things and looked at my phone and gone &quot;I know it&#x27;s on here, which app was it?&quot; Make all the messages texts searchable<p>And whilst we are at it: TRANSCRIBE THE PHONE CALLS TOO!!!
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juustoover 3 years ago
I would love the opposite: text messages that can be go from text-to-speech. Specially useful when doing chores and those long threads some people write. Or one of those busy groups where everyone is saying something. Just hit play and let the phone read them all. (I use WhatsApp)<p>Or is this a feature I am unaware on phones?
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ximengover 3 years ago
Wechat has this feature
maerF0x0over 3 years ago
Twilio has a few ways to do this, including audio that streams through Twilio.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.twilio.com&#x2F;speech-recognition" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.twilio.com&#x2F;speech-recognition</a><p>Disclaimer: I work for twilio, but am not representing them in this post
ksecover 3 years ago
May be this should be an OS feature rather than a Per App feature?<p>I wish they could transcribe my Voice Mail too. Whenever I have a voice mail, auto call the mail box and transcribe it for me. 99% of it are junk. But just in case there is one real voice message.
paxysover 3 years ago
FYI Slack does this already for all uploaded audio &amp; video clips, and it works great.
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mbestoover 3 years ago
Isn&#x27;t this a privacy issue with E2E encryption?
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filipeishoover 3 years ago
Zenly also has this feature
an21mmover 3 years ago
zenly lets you do it already
olaola2over 3 years ago
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