Once again, Google has given me a reason to love the latest version of Android. If you have a phone call recording app installed on your phone, it will not work if you upgrade to Android 9. And I am ecstatic about it. Why?
Early this year, I received an audio message on WhatsApp from a friend. Listening to it, I was shocked to find out that the sound from the audio sent to me was my own voice. A conversation I had was recorded and saved without my permission.
There are lots of 3rd party phone call recorder apps that are available for download and use. The worst part is that the recording can often be done without the knowledge of the other party. That is totally not right, so you can understand my joy when I found out that Google has killed the popular call recording feature and this is all to improve user privacy for Android users.
The developers of one phone call recorder app, Call Recorder – ACR, released a statement saying, “We would like to inform our users that there will be no call recording workaround on Android 9 and above. No call recording app will be able to do so.”
Legal Issues With Call Recording
Even though this part of the world has given no say to call recordings, it has been banned in several
countries. It is also illegal in many places to record conversations without the consent of the other party.
I really can’t say why Google brought back call recording to its version as it was first removed in Android Marshmallow.
Is This The End Of Phone Call Recording Apps?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. App developers may still find another workaround, or Google might change their minds and reverse the policy, maybe with more stringent requirements. Or Google might go ahead and build one that meets legal/ethical requirements into Android OS. We shall see.
Have you ever used a phone call recording app? What did you use it for? Has someone ever recorded your phone conversation without your knowledge? How did that go? What do you think of this development? Do share your experiences and opinions with us.