Android call recording apps In addition to certain native options, Android phones may utilise third-party applications to record calls. Google, on the other hand, will phase out applications that provide this job beginning next month. This is stated in an update to the Google Play Store policy, which was made public on Wednesday (20).
The notification is taken from a document on the support website. Google notes in one area that “Accessibility API is not intended and cannot be requested for capturing audio of distant conversations.” As a result, applications that exploit this capability to record calls will be removed from the Google Play Store.
The adjustment is set to go into effect on May 11. Furthermore, the policy tweak is exclusively meant for third-party programmes; native solutions will be unaffected. Moun Choi, Content Operations Lead, detailed the change during a developer event.
The term “audio recording of the call” refers to “audio recording of the call while the person on the other end is unaware that the recording is taking place.” However, “if the app is the phone’s default dialer and is also preloaded,” the accessibility functionality to access call audio is not required. In other words, they will not breach the new rules.
It’s worth noting that Google has discouraged the usage of these applications for a number of years. According to XDA-Developers, with Android 6, the corporation discontinued the official API for recording phone conversations. Following that, developers explored for solutions, but Google strengthened the restriction with Android 9 and 10. Currently, apps leverage the API Accessibility functionality to record call audio.
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Change may offer more privacy to users
Android call recording apps The issue is both evident and reasonable. On the one hand, there’s the problem of privacy, since it’s not nice to discover that someone is secretly recording your chat without your knowledge. On the other side, there is the legal problem, since not all nations handle the situation in the same manner.
But, at the same time, I’m not sure whether this is the best option. As a journalist, I usually communicate to sources over the phone, particularly since the epidemic began. And I’d want to be able to record interviews via phone conversations so that I don’t have to depend on Google Meet or Zoom all the time.
Other categories, in addition to my example, must track calls. That is, certain people need this feature for their jobs. In this light, wouldn’t it make more sense for Google to control the feature’s usage, requiring an alert so that other people on the other end of the connection know that the discussion is being recorded, as Google Meet already does?
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