Transcription Download Requirements

What's happening?

You might notice that:

• A prompt to download language data appears when trying to use transcription
• Transcription doesn't work until the download is complete
• The download size may be significant (usually 50-100MB per language)
• You might have concerns about storage space or data usage

Why is this happening?

WhatsApp uses on-device AI for transcription to protect your privacy. This means:

• The speech recognition model must be downloaded to your device
• Your voice messages are processed locally, not on external servers
• Each language requires its own model to be downloaded separately

This approach ensures your voice data stays on your device, but it does require additional storage space.

What can you do?

• Ensure you have sufficient storage space on your device (at least 100MB free)
• Use a Wi-Fi connection to download the language data if you have a limited data plan
• If storage is an issue, consider deleting unused apps or files to make room
• Only download language models for languages you frequently use
• Check your WhatsApp settings to see how much space language models are using