Even though Facebook acquired WhatsApp, it does not mean that the company plans on abandoning its Messenger service. In fact according to a Facebook official, it seems that Facebook has plans to improve Messenger in the future and one of the features that the service could gain would be voice-to-text transcription.
According to David Marcus, Facebook’s VP of messaging products, Facebook has already begun testing out the feature. Marcus believes that such a feature could be a hit in regions such as Asia where typing out characters in one’s native language could be difficult or slower, which would make a voice-to-text transcription service even more valuable.
Unfortunately Marcus was unable to provide a timeline as to when the feature would be made available, but he did state that 2015 had a rather ambitious roadmap for Messenger, so hopefully we can expect it to be released sometime later this year. He also talked about the possibility of generating revenue from the use of Messenger.
According to Marcus, “In Asia there are messaging apps that sell content, and some in China that have whole ecosystems of commerce on the apps. We don’t want to put advertising all over the place. We don’t want to make the experience feel like you’re being invaded by ads and different things.” In any case what do you guys think? Is a voice-to-text transcription feature something you’d like to see arrive for the Messenger platform?