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WhatsApp voicenotes have come a long, long way.

When the announcement came that you could speed them up, it was cause for celebration. I exist on 1,5x speed permanently and pop to 2x speed if you’re a real waffler.

In January we took another small step for WhatsApp and a giant leap for mankind when WhatsApp allowed for voicenotes to be played in the background in-app.

What wizardry can developers bring us next? For that, we head to Engadget and a breakdown of new features:

Users will be able to pause and resume while recording a message and listen back to it before sending.

Image: Meta

You’ll soon have the option of listening to messages outside of chats so you can multitask. If you pause during playback, WhatApp will remember where you left off when you return to the chat. A waveform visualization could help you follow recordings as well.

Yes. Bring it on.

According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – not the most reliable source on, well, anything –  seven billion voicenotes are sent on WhatsApp every day.

I have my gripes regarding voicenotes but they’re certainly preferable to getting a call out of the blue.

At least I get to listen to it on my own time, rather than being forced to drop whatever I’m doing to answer a call that suits somebody else’s schedule.

This signals what has been dubbed a move to asynchronous communication.

Synchronous communication requires two parties to be available at the same time, for a meeting, Zoom call, or whatever your preferred method is.

Here’s Forbes with why companies and individuals are now embracing asynchronous communication, which is usually done via email, text, or voicenotes:

Negating the need for real-time contact means less perceived urgency, fewer distractions, and more uninterrupted chunks of time for producing and creating. Like life was before notifications, before we were expected to be so responsive. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs, artists and inventors locked themselves away for long periods of time, seeking solitude and space for uninterrupted thinking.

Especially for companies with a global workforce, choosing async over sync means no aligning of schedules or intrusive, attention-grabbing requests to “jump on a call.” Professionals can work at their own pace and according to their personal working patterns, whilst also better managing time zone discrepancies.

I pop you a voicenote (a concise one, because I respect your time), you listen and reply in due course, and on we roll.

Asynchronous communication also helps foster those periods of uninterrupted flow rather than little distractions cropping up constantly.

Oh look, another meeting about a meeting that could have been an email in the first place:

Not needing to wait until someone is available to speak means projects can progress, conversations can take place and challenges can be solved without the need for Zoom calls. Finding a chunk of time, a quiet place and preparing for the conversation need not happen for everyday matters…

Asynch operating can be an effective and efficient way of getting things done whilst keeping communication within a team productive. Whilst there is a place for synchronous communication, and it holds benefits, it’s likely that overall it costs more than it brings.

The full article can be found here if you want to dig deeper.

These cultural shifts don’t happen overnight, especially in the workplace environment, but at least conversations are being had around moving away from the “always-on” culture that has become so normalised since working from home has grown in prominence.

All hail the mighty voicenote. Save us from meetings.

[sources:engadget&forbes]