Messaging apps have gone way beyond just texting. And WhatsApp is standing tall, hovering high like a giant that towers others.
This isn't because WhatsApp has tons of features. Instead, it's because of his the humble history of its founder, and also because it is then backed by Facebook, later known as Meta.
When the straightforward messaging app becomes the largest, it benefits from its more than 2 billion users who use the app frequently to communicate with others.
While WhatsApp was born as a simple messaging app, Facebook added lots of things to it.
But still, those things don't derail the app from its original simplicity. And thanks to that, WhatsApp is ubiquitous.
Among the features that are straightforward in the app, is sending voice messages.
And this time, WhatsApp is improving that feature.
Voice notes are one of the most popular ways to communicate on WhatsApp.
But before this, it had one big issue: users could create a voice message by speaking directly to the microphone, as a way to send messages like when their hands are busy, but they have no way to preview the recording before sending it.
This time, WhatsApp announced that users should now be able to preview their voice notes before sending them.
While this addition is nothing big, it's a very handy improvements.
This is especially true, since as people don't only expect ephemeral text messages, as they too, wished to also have a way to rapidly delete erroneous voice notes.
To take advantage of the feature, users need to hold down on the microphone button and then swipe up to enter the hands-free recording mode.
Once users completed a recording, WhatsApp will allow users to hit the play button to listen to the voice note first, before sending it.
They’re not mistakes, they’re rehearsals. Now you can preview your voice messages before you hit send. pic.twitter.com/ohnEVrGTvD
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) December 14, 2021
While the default behavior of sending voice messages is still to send a message immediately after releasing the record button, the update is introducing a new step for those who need it.
With the addition, users have a chance to preview their recorded voice message before sending them.
And if not, they have the change to delete them by pressing the trash can icon.
Before this, it has been all too easy to send a voice message, only to later discover that background noise or interference have rendered a key part of what the recorded audio inaudible.
Unlike text messages that users type letter by letter, or copy-pasted, users had no way to preview what they've recorded after hitting the microphone button.
With the update, users can at least have some extra peace of mind.