iMessage voice note summary

Voice notes are an interesting feature of iMessage. You can easily vomit your thoughts into your phone microphone and send them to a friend. It feels like an extension of voicemail more than it does messaging, and I’ve found a select number of friends use it. Those who do use it, use it a lot.

Sometimes, voice note users are verbally processing as they compose the message. This is a great way to support alternative methods of thought and communication, but it’s not so fun for the recipient to listen to a 10-minute voice message.

This got me thinking about all the AI functionality Apple plans to roll out with iOS 18. What if a user was able to summarize a voice message with AI instead of listening to the whole thing?

This would be a great way to save a few minutes if you’re in a rush, but you’re likely to lose some of the nuances that come with the original voice note. It would get interesting if the sender could see when recipients opt to summarize, but it’d likely cause some friction between friends.

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