WhatsApp will allow you to create status messages using your own voice too

WhatsApp already allows emoji and GIF animations to be inserted into status messages, which work like Instagram or Facebook stories. The next step will be to add audio recordings, in which users can express their mood, or their dissatisfaction with certain people in their contact list.

The concept has been developed in the Facebook network, where users can share so-called “ephemeral stories”, including any combination of photos, videos and text messages. No matter how uninspiring they are chosen, they all automatically disappear the next day, with the social network using this argument to encourage as many posts as possible to be shared, regardless of their quality. Very well received, the Stories concept is widely used on Instagram and Facebook, so why wouldn’t it work on WhatsApp too, adapting options to the status message setting.

Recorded voice notes will first appear as drafts that authors can listen to before posting them as status message updates. Designed as an alternative to recording video messages, the new functionality will appear first for users in the United States and can be found in the WhatsApp client’s Status Update menu.

Operating on the principle of voice memos, audio status messages will be limited to 30 seconds in length so as not to bore followers with overly long stories. Meta notes that voice messages posted in this way will be transmitted exclusively over end-to-end encrypted connections, providing protection against eavesdropping by anyone other than those in the contact list.

WhatsApp is not the only platform experimenting with voice posts. Twitter has been testing the option to post voice tweets on iOS for some time.