messenger-voice-notes
A refresh of Messenger's voice notes feature, with recordings up to 30 minutes, editable takes, automatic transcription, and a redesigned recording and playback surface.
Voice notes in Messenger, a refresh of the voice notes Facebook launched in 2013, now with longer recordings and automatic transcripts.
Messenger voice notes let people record and send audio inside a conversation instead of typing. The original feature shipped in 2013 with recordings capped at a single minute.
As design lead, I worked on a broader refresh that improved both the interface and what the feature could do. We extended recordings from one minute to 30, added automatic transcription, and rebuilt the controls so people could pause, continue, preview, or delete a voice note before sending.
The original recorder represented activity with a gray bubble that expanded and contracted around a red Record button. It communicated that recording was active, but not the recording itself. We replaced that abstract pulse with a live waveform shaped by the captured audio. The waveform then carried through preview and playback, connecting the act of speaking to the voice note that appeared in the conversation.
The live waveform is the recording. It carries from capture through preview and playback, so what you said and what you sent stay the same thing.
Automatic transcripts also made voice notes useful when listening was inconvenient or impossible. Together, the changes brought a feature that had remained largely unchanged since 2013 closer to how people use voice today.