How to turn voice messages into text on WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram and Instagram

Most messaging apps can now turn a voice message into text, but only on some devices. On WhatsApp, turn on Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts, then touch and hold a voice message and tap Transcribe; the text is made on your phone and the sender never sees it. iMessage audio messages carry a transcript, Instagram shows View transcription under a voice message, and Telegram transcribes with Premium (and a couple a week without it). On a Mac the picture is patchier, which is where most people get stuck.

This guide gives each app’s built-in option with its limits (devices, languages, cost), what works on a Mac, the privacy trade-off of transcription websites, and how to reply to a voice note without listening twice. Everything was checked against each company’s own help pages on 20 October 2026.

Voice message transcription by app (October 2026)

App	How to see the text	Phones	Mac and web	Languages	Cost	Where it’s made
WhatsApp	Turn on Voice message transcripts, then touch and hold a voice message > Transcribe	iPhone (iOS 16+, Siri on) and Android	“Only available on certain devices”, per WhatsApp	Android: 4. iPhone: 12 on iOS 16, 20 on iOS 17+	Free	On your device
iMessage	The transcript comes with the audio message	iPhone	Apple’s Mac guide doesn’t mention it	41 language variants (speech model download)	Free	Apple doesn’t say on that page
Telegram	Tap the transcribe button on a voice or video message	iPhone and Android	Telegram for macOS, Telegram Desktop and Web	Not listed	Premium; 2 a week without it	Telegram’s service
Instagram	Tap View transcription below the voice message	iPhone and Android	instagram.com in a browser	Not listed	Free	Instagram doesn’t say

Sources: WhatsApp, Apple and Apple’s feature list, Telegram, Instagram. Details and steps for each are below.

How to turn a WhatsApp voice message into text

WhatsApp transcribes voice messages on your phone, for free, once you switch the feature on. It launched on 21 November 2024, and WhatsApp says transcripts “are generated on your device” (WhatsApp blog).

Turn it on

1. Open WhatsApp Settings (on iPhone, tap Settings or your profile picture).
2. Tap Chats.
3. Turn on Voice Message Transcripts.
4. Tap Choose language and pick the language most of your voice messages arrive in.
5. On iPhone, tap Change to [language]. On Android, tap Set up now or Wait for Wi-Fi.

Read a voice message as text

1. Touch and hold a voice message.
2. Tap Transcribe (on Android, tap the menu icon first).
3. Tap the expand icon in the voice message to read the whole transcript. It can take a moment to appear.

The limits

• Phone first. WhatsApp’s help page for its Mac app and WhatsApp Web says transcripts are “only available on certain devices and may not be available to you yet” (WhatsApp Help Center). If you don’t see Transcribe on your computer, use your phone.
• Languages depend on your phone. On Android: English, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian only. On iPhone with iOS 16: 12 languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). With iOS 17 or later, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai join them, for 20.
• One language at a time. You pick one transcript language, so a voice note in a different language is likely to come out wrong. Change it under Settings > Chats > Transcript language. Turning transcripts off resets your language choice.
• iPhone needs Siri. WhatsApp says you need iOS 16 or newer with Siri enabled; if Siri was off when you turned transcripts on, you’ll be asked to download the language.
• Only you see it. The recipient who turned transcripts on sees the text; the sender can’t.
• Not perfect. WhatsApp says plainly that transcripts may be inaccurate.

How to read iMessage audio messages as text

On iPhone, Messages adds a transcript to audio messages: Apple’s iPhone guide says you can send audio messages “along with transcripts of what’s said”, and that they’re transcribed in the language set in the sender’s Settings (Apple). So if a friend records in French but their iPhone is set to English, expect a poor transcript; it’s their language setting that counts, not yours.

Apple’s feature availability page lists audio message transcription in 41 language variants, from Arabic to Turkish, including several kinds of English, Spanish, French and Chinese, with a note that it “requires download of speech models”. Hindi isn’t on the list.

Other things worth knowing:

• Audio messages are deleted from the conversation two minutes after you play them unless you tap Keep. To keep all of them, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Expire (under Audio Messages) and choose Never.
• To save one as a file, touch and hold it and tap Save to Voice Memos.
• On a Mac: Apple’s Messages guide for Mac explains recording an audio message and clicking Keep to save it (Apple), but says nothing about transcripts. Don’t count on reading the text on your Mac; check the iPhone.

How to transcribe Telegram voice messages

Telegram’s voice-to-text turns voice and video messages into text with a tap on the transcribe button next to the message. It’s a Telegram Premium feature, with two ways to get it without paying:

• A weekly allowance. On 30 November 2023 Telegram said all users can “convert up to 2 messages per week into text”, with Premium users getting unlimited (Telegram blog). Telegram’s developer documentation still describes a weekly trial count with a reset date for non-Premium users (Telegram).
• Boosted groups. Groups at boost level 6 or higher get unlimited voice-to-text for their members (Telegram Premium FAQ).

On a Mac it works too. Telegram says Premium features are supported in Telegram for iOS, Android and macOS, Telegram Desktop and Telegram Web, so both Mac apps can transcribe. If you’re unsure which Mac app you have, our guide to Telegram on Mac explains the difference.

Privacy: Telegram’s developer documentation handles transcription as a request to Telegram’s own service, so the text is produced by Telegram rather than on your phone. That’s the same trust you already place in Telegram for its cloud chats.

How to see Instagram voice message transcripts

Instagram adds a View transcription link under voice messages in chats. Tap or click it to read the text; the Help Center says people in the chat can see the transcript of your voice message the same way (Instagram Help Center). The instructions appear in Instagram’s computer help as well as its phone help, so it works at instagram.com on a Mac.

Instagram doesn’t list supported languages or say where transcripts are made, so treat it as a cloud feature.

Can you transcribe voice messages on a Mac?

Sometimes. Here’s where each app stands on a Mac as of October 2026:

• WhatsApp for Mac and WhatsApp Web: WhatsApp says transcripts are only available on certain devices so far. If Transcribe isn’t there, read it on your phone.
• Messages: Apple’s Mac guide doesn’t mention transcripts of audio messages. Use your iPhone.
• Telegram for macOS and Telegram Desktop: yes, with Premium or the weekly allowance.
• Instagram in a browser: yes, View transcription is in Instagram’s computer help.

If you want to send text by talking, that’s a different job: Apple Dictation types what you say into any message field. Our guide to dictating text messages on a Mac covers it.

Replying to a voice message from your Mac

Reading a voice note is half the job; you still have to answer it. If your chats are spread over several apps on a Mac, Tera Chat for Mac (our app) has a Voice draft for exactly this case. Press ⌥⌘V, pick the audio file of a voice message someone sent you, and Tera Chat transcribes it on your Mac and drafts your reply to it. You read the draft, edit it and send it yourself.

What to know before you try it:

• Transcription is local; drafting needs AI. The transcript is made on your Mac. Writing the reply needs AI set up: your ChatGPT account through OpenAI’s Codex, your own Claude or Grok API key, or a Tera Chat AI plan (AI Plus is $9.99 a month, cancel anytime). The AI you choose sees the conversation it drafts for.
• It works from a file. It isn’t dictation and it doesn’t listen live.
• It’s Mac-only. Tera Chat is free and needs a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 15 or later. It brings iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Tinder into one inbox.

How AI drafting in your own voice works, and how it compares with other tools, is in our guide to AI that replies to texts in your style. Before you give any AI tool your chats, read is it safe to let AI read your messages?

Are transcription websites safe?

Search for “WhatsApp voice message to text” and you’ll find websites and bots that ask you to upload or forward the audio. They can work, but think about what you’re sending:

• It’s someone else’s voice. The person who recorded it chose to send it to you, not to a transcription company.
• It leaves the app. WhatsApp’s own transcripts are made on your device. Uploading the voice note hands a copy to a third party, outside WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.
• Check the policy. Before using any upload tool, find out how long it keeps files and whether it uses them to train AI. If it doesn’t say, assume it keeps them.

The built-in options are free and keep the audio inside the app you already trust, so try them first.

Why transcripts go wrong, and how to get better ones

Most bad transcripts come from one of four things:

1. The wrong language. WhatsApp uses the one language you picked; iMessage uses the sender’s language setting. A voice note in another language comes out as nonsense.
2. Mixed languages. Switching between two languages mid-sentence trips up every transcriber.
3. Noise. Wind, traffic, music and a phone in a pocket all cost accuracy.
4. Names, numbers and slang. These are the words most likely to be wrong, and the ones that matter most. Check an address, a time or an amount against the audio before you act on it.

If you send a lot of voice notes, you can help your friends: say the important detail clearly once (“Saturday, 7 pm, at Maya’s”), or follow up with a one-line text.

Are voice notes rude?

Not in themselves, but they ask more of the listener than a text does: they need a quiet moment, and a five-minute voice note is hard to skim. A few habits keep them welcome:

• Ask first with people who don’t send them back.
• Keep it short, or say up front what it’s about.
• Put logistics in text. Times, addresses and links are easier to find later.
• Don’t send them when someone’s at work unless you know they like them.

Transcription has made voice notes easier to receive, but not everyone has it turned on. More unwritten rules are in our guide to texting etiquette.

The short version

• WhatsApp: Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts, then touch and hold > Transcribe. Phone only for most people; made on your device.
• iMessage: the transcript comes with audio messages on iPhone, in the sender’s language. Not documented on Mac.
• Telegram: Premium, or two a week without it; works in both Mac apps.
• Instagram: View transcription, on the phone and on the web.
• On a Mac with several apps: read on your phone or in Telegram and Instagram, and use a voice draft to answer.