Facebook unveils voice transcription feature in Messenger, acquires design firm

Facebook has just begun testing a new voice transcription feature in its Messenger app. In addition, it has just announced that it has acquired a boutique design firm.

As announced by David Marcus, head of Facebook’s Messenger team, a new in-development feature allows users of the Facebook Messenger app to read transcripts of voice messages instead of listening to them. “So, for example, if you’re at a concert or in a meeting, and would prefer to read a voice clip from a friend,” Marcus notes, “you now can if you’re part of the small test we’re rolling out.”

The feature begins rolling out to a small number users of Facebook Messenger today ahead of its official launch in the near future.

Facebook Messenger has offered the ability to send receive voice messages since a couple of years ago. But it’s only now that the app is set to gain voice message transcriptions à la Google Voice, perhaps as a result of Facebook’s recent acquisition of the voice recognition startup Wit.ai.

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In other news, Facebook has announced that it has acquired the design agency Teehan+Lax, which has previously worked with the social networking giant in relaunching the ad targeting service Atlas.

Teehan+Lax is also behind some notable Web and mobile products, including the blogging platform Medium, the read-later app Readability, and the social news reader Prismatic. It’s quite probable that Facebook would be tapping into its newly “acqui-hired” talents in improving its core News Feed feature and Paper app.