iPhone iPhone voice messages are now transcribed

I'm probably the last one to notice this, but I had a voice message on my iPhone this morning and set out to listen to it. Then I noticed that on the page with the voice message controls, the message was transcribed during playback on the speaker. Pretty cool! It does say "Transcription Beta" at the top, so maybe it is a new feature.

[Deskisamess]

I have that feature in my iPhone 7+. My husband's 6 doesn't have it...I think you need at least a 6s.

I love it, and it seems to work really well.

[pwalker8]

Comes in handy when you get a voice mail, but are in a meeting and can't actually listen to it.

[HarryT]

Forgive a stupid question, but what screen with the voice message controls? When I get voicemail, I get a text message telling me I've got voicemail, and then I just dial the voicemail phone number and listen to them. I didn't know there was a control screen for them .

Originally Posted by HarryT

Forgive a stupid question, but what screen with the voice message controls? When I get voicemail, I get a text message telling me I've got voicemail, and then I just dial the voicemail phone number and listen to them. I didn't know there was a control screen for them .

Click the Phone app icon. That will display a bar across the bottom of the screen with the following options:

• Favorite
• Recents
• Contacts
• Keypad
• Voicemail

Click the Voicemail option. That displays the Voicemail screen with the list of messages left, just select the one you want to hear. Then text will also be shown.

[HarryT]

Thanks, Jack. I think that's perhaps something specific to the US? On my iPhone, pressing that button just dials voicemail and leaves me on the phone keypad screen. I don't see a list of messages. I wonder if it only works with specific carriers?

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks, Jack. I think that's perhaps something specific to the US? On my iPhone, pressing that button just dials voicemail and leaves me on the phone keypad screen. I don't see a list of messages. I wonder if it only works with specific carriers?

Could be specific to the carriers for sure.

[kyteflyer]

I think it requires "Visual Voicemail" and not all carriers provide that. Here in Australia I think Vodafone is the only one that does. The rest of us hit the voicemail icon and it goes directly to dialling.

Here is what it looks like on my T-Mobile iPhone 7:

.......

[Bookworm_Girl]

I think the transcription has been available since iOS 10 was introduced last fall. I find it very useful. The transcription capability is definitely beta. It works well enough to get the basic notion of the message at a glance. It doesn't do so well if someone leaves you a rambling message, speaks softly, or the message is full of uncommon terms/names (like a home repair service tech might leave about an appointment).

Your wireless carrier needs to offer Visual Voicemail. Here are the European carriers. O2 appears to have it in the UK for example.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204040

EDIT:
Here's some description of what Visual Voicemail is.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201436

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Your wireless carrier needs to offer Visual Voicemail. Here are the European carriers. O2 appears to have it in the UK for example.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204040

Thanks - that explains it. I'm with Vodafone, who it seems don't support it in the UK, although they do in some other countries.