LinkedIn Voice Notes

How LinkedIn voice notes work

LinkedIn voice notes appear as native blue waveform messages in the recipient's inbox, indistinguishable from voice notes recorded directly in the LinkedIn app.

The recipient sees the voice note as if you recorded and sent it from the LinkedIn mobile app. There is no bot indicator, no external link — just a native voice message.

Setup: Chrome extension required

LinkedIn voice notes are sent by the Svara Chrome extension. Install it once, enter your API key, and stay signed in to LinkedIn in Chrome. There is nothing else to configure.

Install the extension

1. Add the Svara extension from the Chrome Web Store
2. Click the Svara icon in your toolbar and enter your API key
3. Stay logged into LinkedIn in any tab

Prefer to install it manually? Download the zip from svarapi.io/extension and follow the sideload steps there.

When you send a voice note via the API, the extension sends it within seconds, as long as Chrome is open and you're signed in to LinkedIn.

Example request

You only need your API key, the recipient and an audio URL.

curl -X POST https://svarapi.io/api/v1/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SVARA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "platform": "linkedin",
    "recipient": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-a1b2c3",
    "audio_url": "https://cdn.example.com/notes/intro.m4a"
  }'

const response = await fetch("https://svarapi.io/api/v1/send", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.SVARA_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    platform: "linkedin",
    recipient: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-a1b2c3",
    audio_url: "https://cdn.example.com/notes/intro.m4a",
  }),
});

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://svarapi.io/api/v1/send",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"},
    json={
        "platform": "linkedin",
        "recipient": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-a1b2c3",
        "audio_url": "https://cdn.example.com/notes/intro.m4a",
    },
)

The API returns immediately with status: "queued". The extension delivers the voice note within a few seconds.

Recipient identifier

The recipient field is the person's LinkedIn profile URL, for example https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-a1b2c3. You can also pass just the part after linkedin.com/in/ (jane-smith-a1b2c3). Message-thread, Sales Navigator and company links are rejected with a 400 before any voice note is used.

Audio format

Svara automatically converts your audio into the correct format for LinkedIn voice notes. You can provide audio in any common format:

| Input format | Supported | |---|---| | M4A / AAC | Yes | | MP3 | Yes | | WAV | Yes | | OGG / OPUS | Yes | | WebM | Yes |

Audio files must be under 10 MB. Recommended duration is 15-60 seconds for outreach messages.

What happens after you send

1. You call POST /api/v1/send with platform: "linkedin" and get back status: "queued"
2. The Svara Chrome extension sends the voice note from your LinkedIn account
3. The status changes to sent (or failed, with a reason) — check it with GET /api/v1/status/{id} or a webhook

Common errors

| Error | Cause | Solution | |---|---|---| | Extension not connected | The Chrome extension is not running | Open Chrome and make sure the extension is loaded with your API key | | Not logged into LinkedIn | Your LinkedIn session has expired | Log back into LinkedIn in your browser | | Could not resolve profile | The profile slug doesn't exist | Check the profile URL and slug format | | not_connected | You're not connected with the recipient | You can only send voice notes to 1st-degree connections | | audio_too_large | The audio file exceeds 10 MB | Compress or shorten your audio | | audio_fetch_failed | Could not download the audio from the URL | Ensure the URL is publicly accessible and returns audio content |