Facebook is looking to add a new feature to its Messenger app for iOS and Android devices which will allow us to record small snippets of speech that will be converted into readable text.
The Vice President of Facebook Messenger, David Marcus (not Captain Kirk’s son) has been caught loose-lipped on his own profile on the social network telling his friends and followers about the development on how the company plans to make the app more useful. Already (and unbeknownst to some) the Messenger app can record and send voice clips between friends and voice-to-text conversion would be a continuation of this and will offer online social types another way to communicate quickly.
According to Marcus’ post, the voice-to-text is rolling out now as a test to a small number of Facebook users to get feedback on the new addition before making a noise to a larger audience.
This could prove a handy feature if, as the VP points out, you might be in a meeting or a concert and it’s not a good time for the recipient to take a voice message. However on other occasions, where there are no excuses, some may think it’s rather rude for someone to be speaking into a phone only to leave a text whereas a phone call would have been very nice.