WhatsApp has announced a series of updates for voice messages to make it easier for people to communicate with their contacts on the platform using voice notes, including the ability to listen to a message while reading other chats and play messages at 1.5 or 2 times the normal speed.

The six new features introduced to WhatsApp voice notes are: draft preview, the ability to pause/resume the message, out of chat playback, and the global voice note player. WhatsApp is also allowing users to pause playback of voice notes, as well as show waveforms of voice notes on the screen.

Six new features for voice note messages: WhatsApp

• Out of Chat Playback: Listen to a voice message outside of the chat, so you can multitask or read and respond to other messages.
• Pause/Resume Recording: When recording a voice message, you can now pause the recording and resume when ready, in case you’re interrupted or need to gather your thoughts.
• Waveform Visualization: Shows a visual representation of the sound on the voice message to help follow the recording.
• Draft Preview: Listen to your voice messages before sending them.
• Remember Playback: If you pause when listening to a voice message, you can pick up where you left off when you return to the chat.
• Fast Playback on Forwarded Messages: Play voice messages at 1.5x or 2x speeds to listen to messages faster on both regular and forwarded messages.

These new features will roll out in the coming weeks.

Revealing the features, Will Cathcart, WhatsApp’s CEO, stated

When we first launched voice messaging in 2013, we knew that it could change the way people communicate. By keeping the design simple, we’ve made recording and sending a voice message as quick and easy as writing a text. Every day on WhatsApp, our users send 7 billion voice messages on average, all of which are protected by end-to-end encryption to keep them private and secure at all times. Today, we’re excited to announce new features that make the voice message experience on WhatsApp even better.