Facebook owned instant messaging app WhatsApp is working on a host of new features. After end-to-end encryption for backup chats, the messaging app is now working on a Voice Transcription feature.

As per WABetaInfo report, WhatsApp is working on a possibility to bring a voice transcription feature for its platform. This simply means the app will start transcribing the voice messages when the feature will be rolled out.

WhatsApp Voice Transcriptions feature allows users to transcribe the contents of a voice message which means the users can now turn the content in the voice message into readable format. 

In its official blog post, WhatsApp revealed that the Voice Transcriptions feature will be provided on an opt-in basis, which means that users can transcribe WhatsApp messages only after granting permission.

Besides that, the blog site revealed that users’ messages will not be sent to WhatsApp or Facebook’s server for getting the transcription. However, Apple will provide the service.

This will further help in improving the speech recognition technology in Apple.

”When a message is transcribed for the first time, its transcription is saved locally in the WhatsApp database, so it won’t be needed to transcript it again if you want to see its transcription later,” the blog site wrote.

This feature is being developed for WhatsApp’s iOS-based app and it will be available to beta testers with the text update. However, there is no confirmation for Android devices.

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Instant messaging app WhatsApp has launched a new feature to secure the protect the privacy of users’ private chats. One of the things people have loved so far about Facebook-owned text application WhatsApp is how secure the chatting experience inside the application is. Now, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart has announced that WhatsApp chat backup will also be end-to-end encrypted (E2E). This is a major development in the security and privacy of WhatsApp chats as backups in Google Drive or iCloud were unencrypted and could be hacked by third-party snooping.

Learn about the new feature

WhatsApp chats were always E2E encrypted. This means that only the sender and receiver of messages can read them. However, chats that were automatically backed up to Google Drive or Apple iCloud were not encrypted. Therefore, any third party could spy on these backup files to read the messages. No, the WhatsApp is expanding the encryption to chat backup as well.

How is WhatsApp securing chat backup on Google Drive and Apple iCloud?

In its official blog post, WhatsApp has revealed that WhatsApp has created a new mechanism for encryption key storage to enable E2E backup. It works with both iOS and Android. With E2E Backup enabled, the backup will be encrypted with a unique, randomly generated key. Users can choose to either protect the key manually or through a user password. When one opts for a password, the key is stored in a backup key vault which is built on the basis of a component called Hardware Security Module (HSM).

How to access encrypted WhatsApp chat backup:

According to WhatsApp, when the account users want to access their backup, they can access his encryption key with Vault. Users can use their personal password to retrieve their encryption keys and decrypt their backups from the HSM-based Backup Key Vault.

The HSM Backup Key Vault is responsible for enforcing password verification attempts and rendering the key permanently inaccessible after a certain number of unsuccessful attempts to access it.

In other India news, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani resigned on Saturday.

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