Google Duo may soon offer transcription of video and audio messages

Google Duo may soon offer transcription of audio and video messages, according to popular leaker Jane Manchun Wong. Duo is Google's person-to-person audio and video calling app.

Google already offers system-wide transcription on Pixel phones so you can get live captions of any audio playing through your device, and a Recorder app for transcribing audio around you in real-time. Wong uncovered a setting buried inside an unreleased version of Duo titled, "Captions for messages," suggesting that it will transcribe only pre-recorded messages that you've received from family and friends.

Cool, could be better — That could be useful for people who are hard-of-hearing or maybe are in a quiet setting where they can't play audio out loud. But it would certainly be much more useful if the transcription occurred in real-time. Microsoft's workplace collaboration software, Teams, offers real-time transcription of chats through Cortana that is said to be pretty good.

Thankfully the setting in Duo explicitly states that while transcription will require sending your messages to Google's servers, the company won't store any of it.

Also revealed in Wong's leak is a toggle that would allow you to save video and audio messages to your device's camera roll.