WhatsApp rolls out ability to share voice notes as status updates for limited users

Earlier in September, we received hints about an interesting feature on WhatsApp – giving users the ability to upload voice notes to their status updates. Now, the Meta-owned service is finally rolling this out to limited users, giving them the ability to record and share voice notes via their status updates.

For now, the instant messaging app has kept the rollout of the new feature to a handful of users, which is available with the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.2.8. The update is currently available on the Google Play Store. If you are one of the lucky users to get your hands on it, then you will be able to record and share voice notes as status updates.

A tweet by WABetaInfo – which is known for tracking and revealing relevant news and updates about WhatsApp before the Meta-owned service confirms it – brought attention to the news on Wednesday. The tweet, posted early in the day, reads, “WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.2.8: what’s new? WhatsApp is releasing the ability to share voice notes via status updates to some lucky beta testers!”

According to the WhatsApp tracking site, the ability to share voice notes via status updates can be accessed by the beta testers within the text status section – they will find it to be enabled for them. For normal users like you and me, we will continue to have to be limited to pictures, videos, and text as part of our status updates. This feature will roll out to more users in the coming weeks.

Coming back to the beta testers, they will have a greater degree of control over their voice recordings – WhatsApp will offer them the ability to discard a recording before they share it as part of their status updates. Furthermore, WhatsApp will let them delete voice notes for everyone after they have been posted as status updates. The duration of these recordings is far lesser than YouTube Shorts or a Reel on Instagram – the maximum recording time for a voice note as part of the status update on WhatsApp is 30 seconds. Users do not need to have privacy concerns since voice notes shared as status updates will have end-to-end encryption so that only those contacts you choose within your privacy settings can listen to them. The voice notes as status updates, like the current status updates, have a duration of 24 hours before they disappear.