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 delivered via the Svara Chrome extension, which runs in your browser and uses your existing LinkedIn session. This is required because LinkedIn ties sessions to your IP address.

Install the extension

1. Download the extension from svarapi.io/extension
2. Unzip the downloaded file
3. Open chrome://extensions in Chrome
4. Enable Developer mode (top right)
5. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder
6. Click the Svara icon in your toolbar and enter your API key
7. Stay logged into LinkedIn in any tab

The extension polls for LinkedIn jobs automatically. When you send a voice note via the API, the extension picks it up and delivers it within seconds.

Example request

No session credentials needed in the API call — the extension handles authentication automatically.

curl -X POST https://svarapi.io/api/v1/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SVARA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "platform": "linkedin",
    "recipient": "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: "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": "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 LinkedIn profile slug — the part after linkedin.com/in/ in the profile URL. For example, if the profile URL is https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-smith-a1b2c3, the recipient is jane-smith-a1b2c3.

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.

How delivery works

1. You call POST /api/v1/send with platform: "linkedin"
2. Svara converts the audio to M4A and queues the job
3. The Chrome extension picks up the job (polls every 6 seconds)
4. The extension downloads the converted audio and uploads it to LinkedIn
5. The voice note is sent from your browser using your LinkedIn session
6. The extension reports the delivery status back to Svara

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 |