WhatsApp had voice messaging features built-in to the application since 2013, but the messaging service never improved on the nearly a decade old feature, and it hasn’t introduced any new features that would make the experience better for users. That is about to change, as WhatsApp just announced several new features that will soon roll out to everyone. The platform was also recently found to be testing the feature to allow users to share media files as big as 2Gb.

WhatsApp shared in a blog post on Wednesday, that it plans to introduce several new features that will change the way voice messages are sent and listened to in the app. The upcoming features have been in development for quite a while now, and they first appeared in the Beta version of the mobile and desktop apps, it appears that they will soon finally roll out to everyone on the stable channel.

Two of the best features include the out-of-chat playback, which will allow users to listen to voice messages while multitasking, or using other applications other than WhatsApp. The other feature is the draft preview, which will allow users to listen to and playback their voice recording before sending it over.

Here are all of the new voice features that are coming to WhatsApp soon:

WhatsApp Voice Messaging Update

Source: 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.

The newly announced WhatsApp voice messaging features will start rolling out in the coming weeks, and they will be available on mobile and desktop.