Lines of code have been included in the latest version of Google’s Phone app that would allow call recording. Here’s what changes
Call recording could be coming to Android as well. Or, rather, it could come back, since before Android 9 it was possible, through third-party apps, to record calls made even with the phone’s normal dialer.
Then, with Android 9, Google got rid of this possibility by cutting off access to the API that allowed it and, since then, those who want a device with the updated operating system have to do without this feature. Soon, however, Google itself might take a step back and reintroduce call recording. XDA-Developers has discovered a few lines of code contained in the latest Google Phone app, version 43.0.289191107, which has been available for a few days. It would seem that these few lines of code refer to this “new” feature.
Recording phone calls on Android: what’s new
The code discovered by XDA refers to a new layout of the Phone app, with a new icon needed to activate call recording. There will also be a button to turn recording on or off when the call is already in progress. However, despite the presence of the new lines of code, in Google’s latest Phone app recording is still not there. Will it be coming soon? What is certain is that Xiaomi, which is now one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, recently announced that call recording will be possible again during 2020. That announcement, then, might actually refer to the feature developed by Google.
Call recording: a privacy issue?
One of the reasons why Google has prevented third-party apps from recording voice calls is privacy. The issue is not trivial: when we’re on a call with someone, which triggers recording, we can’t know about it. In the meantime, though, that person is recording our voice and what we say, and if they were using a third-party app, the recording could end up on a server somewhere in the world.
Any call recording app, in fact, needs permission to access both the microphone and the internal memory. Otherwise, it couldn’t record or store anything. But who’s to say that the recordings won’t be sent to the app developer? And, if the recording doesn’t happen with a third-party app but Google’s own, the big responsibility of protecting the audio recordings would be all in Big G’s hands.