Audio playback on WhatsApp was becoming hell for many. In addition to the native way from the official application, we will also see other ways to save time by speeding up the voice memos that we receive with third-party applications or a Google Chrome extension.
The use of WhatsApp voice messages divides society. Outside of jokes, it is likely that in your contact list you will find both extremes: those who hate these formats and if they send them they are clips of less than 30 seconds duration; or those who make WhatsApp their personal podcasting platform with endless messages lasting dozens of minutes.
WhatsApp has pulled by the Solomonic decision and try to satisfy both parties with the decision to allow us to accelerate the audios we receive to listen to them faster. It is really something that users have been crying out for years, even more so when Telegram already included this option since 2019. The detractors of voice notes still see the time when their duration is limited to 1 minute as it happens. in other applications, like Instagram, for example.
Accelerate audios natively
Since last May it is possible to accelerate the audios from the official WhatsApp applications . A much sought after tool that the competition had already added previously. Either for a practical matter or because of the limited patience that many of the users of the application have, it was necessary to be able to increase the pace when we received certain voice notes.
The 1.5X playback speed is considered by many to be the best option because the sound quality is still good and all content can be understood with a single playback. There is no shortage of those who want to remain more traditional and have begun to record their messages in a slower manner so that when the playback speed is increased they are heard in a normal way.
Mobile app
When we receive a voice memo and we want to modify the playback speed, it is mandatory to start playing it . Once we press the Play button, we will see how the profile photo icon disappears and a speed indicator appears:
- 1x: Normal speed.
- 1.5X: Speed increased by 50%
- 2x: Double the playback speed.
It is important that we bear in mind that the speed we choose to play the voice memos will be maintained by default . That is, if we listen to a message at twice the speed, when we receive another voice memo and press the play button, it will be done at the speed previously chosen. That is why it is possible that you play something uninteresting at maximum speed and when you want to listen to another message carefully, you have to “stop” it and start playback from scratch. It is a matter of time and getting used to this new tool.
WhatsApp Desktop and Web version
The desktop version of Windows or Mac OS, together with the web version work exactly the same way, once we are listening to the voice memo we can choose its playback speed until it is doubled.
It is true that many people have been surprised that the fastest playback speed is 2x, double, pretending to be able to listen to it faster. It is true that third-party applications can be used to achieve a higher playback speed in WhatsApp audios, but the reality is that in many cases the voice memo becomes unintelligible when we play at twice the speed. In this case, the web and desktop versions have not been late on the news released by the developer as has happened on previous occasions such as calls and video calls.
Third party apps
Before the latest WhatsApp update, it was already possible to speed up the voice notes we received, we did it with third-party applications, these also usually offer other possibilities to manage voice notes that may be interesting.
TalkFaster (Android)
It is the application par excellence that has been used for a long time to accelerate the playback speed of audios on WhatsApp. TalkFaster! (Speak faster! In Spanish) is only available in the Android Play Store .
With this App you can choose between 6 playback speeds: X0.75, X1.00, X1.25, X1.50, X1.75 and X2.00. Again we see that the limit set is X2, beyond that it will be difficult for us to understand the voice notes and it will be quite uncomfortable. One of the advantages of TalkFaster! It is that we can also slow down the playback by choosing X0.75 for those cases in which the speaker does not vocalize well or speaks too fast. In addition, once you have listened to the accelerated voice memo you will be able to know, through a notification, the time that you have saved thanks to the application.
Audio to text for WhatsApp (iOS)
This application was not designed directly to listen to WhatsApp voice notes, it offers another very interesting option. As the name of the App says, you can transcribe the audios you receive into text notes so as not to have to be glued to the device during the seconds or minutes that the speech lasts. If we have the content in text format, the reading is always faster and we will not waste so much time. It also works with videos and is available in 50 different languages, this option is interesting when we communicate in the work environment and we need to save as much time as possible.
To speed up the messages we can choose 5 speeds: 1.00X, 1.25X, 1.50X, 1.75X and 2.00X. and with some languages we do not need to have an active Internet connection at the time of playing the audio.
Zapp (Chrome Extension)
You may still be wondering what the point is to go to other applications to speed up WhatsApp audios if it is already possible to do it natively, the answer is that these applications offer additional functions that the messaging application does not yet do.
The Google Chrome Zapp: WhatsApp Audio Speed and Volume browser extension allows you to control the volume or playback speed of the voice memos you receive with a single click. For this you must be using WhatsApp Web from the browser itself. Also, you can slow down the playback if you need to.
