This update, which has not yet reached all users, remember that Meta introduces WhatsApp news gradually, is testing tools such as the creation of stickers and audio transcription.
New features in WhatsApp
WhatsApp hopes to position itself as a benchmark in personalization and digital expression, adopting two of its own features. iMessageApple’s native messaging app. The Cupertino company could lose the advantage over its rival as a result of this update, since both combine forces thanks to this new functionality that allows you to create stickers from photographs, something that is already in iMessage.
Currently, sharing stickers on WhatsApp is a somewhat cumbersome process. If you find a sticker you like in a friend’s chat, you need add it manually to your collection, one by one, adding it to favorites. However, with this new feature, users will be able to send complete packs via a direct link, simplifying download and access to these personalized elements.
This not only applies to official WhatsApp stickers, but also to those created by third parties. Custom packages can be shared more easily, something many users have been asking for for years.
But the real revolution is in the possibility of creating stickers directly from the app. Until now, those who wanted to design personalized stickers needed to resort to applications to create stickers. With the new tool, users will be able to turn their ideas into reality without leaving WhatsApp, something that will make the experience much more fluid and attractive.
On the other hand, WhatsApp is also adding audio transcription. This means that we can know the content of an audio without having to listen to it, in the same way that happens in iMessage. This new functionality is tremendously useful for those moments when we cannot stop to listen to an audio, because we are in a meeting, or because we cannot activate the volume, among other reasons.
In this way, the full transcription of the content of the message will appear in the chat itself, below the voice message. This functionality is not new in this type of app, as others such as iMessage, Telegram or Slack already incorporate it, but it is new for WhatsApp.
Final blow to Apple
Although these features are not new as such, they are now coming to WhatsApp and promise to give iMessage a definitive blow. Although Apple has allowed since iOS 16 to create stickers quickly by dragging the images into the app thanks to its integrated artificial intelligence tool, it is now available in WhatsApp.
The arrival of a similar feature to WhatsApp, with its massive user base, could affect the perception of exclusivity that Apple has maintained with iMessage. And we’re not just talking about stickers: another of the functions being developed by WhatsApp is the transcription of voice messagesa key feature in iMessage that helps users read audio messages in situations where they can’t hear them.
This tool, considered essential for productivity and accessibility, promises to be one of WhatsApp’s biggest attractions. With millions of people preferring to send audios rather than writing long messages, being able to automatically transcribe them will make WhatsApp even more versatile.
