Faced with an always confusing legality about recording calls, Google announced several weeks ago that they will begin to eliminate some apps that record calls on Android. Not all or under that pretext, but those that use the function of recording calls through accessibility permissions.
To do this, they established a deadline for the developers to justify this function. Date that precisely coincides with today: May 11, 2022.
Knowing the complexity of these procedures, and despite having already reached the deadline, there are some call recording apps that are still present on Google Play. We do not know if they will be able to maintain themselves in the coming weeks and months, but for the moment they are still fully functional. Although, in many cases, with warnings regarding its improper use.
If your mobile has this native function, you will continue to maintain it
There are some devices that incorporate an option to record calls as standard. See the Google Phone app itself, which offers to record calls in some countries without leaving the interface. In these cases, the function has not disappeared, nor will it disappear.
The new Google regulations affect those applications downloaded from Google Play that require access to system accessibility features. And it turns out that these functions integrated as standard do not require these permissions and therefore can continue to be present. At least for now, since at any time Google could launch another regulation that also affects this type of tool.
The fact that many apps of all kinds access accessibility permissions to include functions of all kinds is what raised the alert to Google. A priori they do not seem to be directly against call recording apps , but as of today they do not want them to take advantage of that way of going through the accessibility settings to offer the function.
Truecaller is one of the best apps to record calls on Android. Originally it was not intended for this, but it integrated this function not long ago and today it still maintains it and it is fully downloadable from Google Play.
More focused on this area of recording is ACR . This is another of the classics that, in its case, is aimed at recording phone calls. At the time of publishing this post, it continues to offer all its functions intact and its availability has not changed, so it can continue to be downloaded. What does appear is a notice that was already present before and regarding the changes in Android 12. In this you are redirected to a new version of the app.
Perhaps less well known, but just as functional is Cube ACR. This is another app that is not only still on Google Play right now, but also keeps its call recording feature intact. Therefore, it is still a good way to record our phone calls on Android.
Now, in line with this Google regulation that we have been commenting on, it is not certain that these and other apps will remain in the Google store. Similarly, it is convenient to emphasize the importance of always acting in accordance with the current legislation in each country and not recording without consent and much less using them for improper purposes.