LinkedIn talks the talk, adds new voicemail feature

LinkedIn’s online messaging service will now cater for voice recordings, after a software update designed to expand the way professionals can connect.

Users can now record and send voice messages up to a minute long, ensuring their communications still remain brisk and businesslike (we’re busy people, ok) while giving recruiters and spammers even more ways of cluttering your inbox.

The business-minded social network announced the feature in a blog post (opens in new tab), with the intention of making it “easier than ever to communicate when you want, how you want with your professional community”, though we can't imagine regular users making much use of the feature.

The feature is now live on LinkedIn’s iOS and Android smartphone apps, though the browser version can only receive voice recordings, rather than record its own.

Serious chat

The new voice functionality is the latest of a number of new updates to LinkedIn’s messaging service (opens in new tab). Other recently-added features include the ability to send attachments, or tag other LinkedIn users in your messages to share their profile. Users can also now ‘stretch’ their compose box in the app if they need to type out longer messages.

For more laidback conversation, the app also has a new emoji-picker, adding to the very serious, totally necessary GIF functionality added back in April.

Henry St Leger

Henry is a freelance technology journalist. Before going freelance, he spent more than three years at TechRadar reporting on TVs, projectors and smart speakers as the website's Home Cinema Editor – and has been interviewed live on both BBC World News and Channel News Asia, discussing the future of transport and 4K resolution televisions respectively. As a graduate of English Literature and persistent theatre enthusiast, he'll usually be found forcing Shakespeare puns into his technology articles, which he thinks is what the Bard would have wanted. Bylines also include Edge, T3, and Little White Lies.