Dopo un primo assaggio una decina di giorni fa ora WhatsApp rilancia sulle note vocali: tre velocità per gestirle al meglio e sfruttarle al massimo in ogni situazione.
Gli sviluppatori di WhatsApp continuano a lavorare su nuove funzioni e a modificarne e migliorarne altre, già in fase di test. Come sempre si tratta di funzioni che non arriveranno immediatamente sulle app ufficiali e stabili, quelle che si aggiornano tramite il Play Store o l’App Store, ma di feature che potrebbero arrivare in futuro o, persino, non arrivare mai.
But, as the saying goes, “A clue is a clue, two clues are a coincidence, but three clues make a proof” and as for the voice messages on WhatsApp beta we’re already at the second clue: after the introduction in the beta app for Android, which took place about ten days ago, the ability to speed up the playback of voice notes (very useful feature, if our interlocutors do not have the gift of synthesis), now in beta 2.21.6.11 for Android this novelty has been confirmed and has even evolved for the better. On the latest WhatsApp beta app, in fact, not only can you speed up the playback of voice notes, but you can also choose how much to do it. The possible playback speeds, in fact, become three.
Vocals WhatsApp: 1X, 1.5X and 2X speed
With the new feature being tested when you receive a voice message you can play it back at the original speed (1X), double (2X) or at one and a half times the original speed (1.5%). The half speed would seem like a superfluous option, but it actually changes everything and is the real advantage of this feature.
This is because some people, even when recording WhatsApp audio messages, speak faster than others. If the audio coming from these people is very long and we want to “speed” it up, then, doubling its playback speed could make it unintelligible. In such a case the 1.5X speed is the right one: the audio lasts a lot less, but it remains understandable.
Let’s consider for a moment the classic scenario of using voice messages and we’ll see how useful the 1.5% speed can be: if we are talking through voice messages it is most likely because our hands are busy or we cannot stop for a moment to read and reply. For example, when we are walking around town, going about our daily business and there is a lot of background noise. A vowel played at 2X in such a case could become very difficult to hear if the other party is talking in a hurry.
When the new feature arrives
As already mentioned, this is a feature being tested on the Android beta app only. But that’s also the second clue, pending the third, which could be testing the same feature on the iOS beta app or further refinement on the Android one.
That the feature is useful and requested by users, on the other hand, is evidenced by the fact that when it was first inserted in recent days in many people have responded positively, given also the fact that the competing app Telegram offers the ability to speed up the playback of audio messages since 2018.
Not to mention, then, that now everyone is throwing on voice messages (even Twitter) and that WhatsApp begins to feel on the neck the breath of competitors.