I tried the most popular apps to record calls and lost the desire to record calls

Do you remember the days when you could record calls on your mobile in perfect quality? It’s been a while since Android 9 Pie started to limit recording apps and we eventually got used to the poor recording quality with the microphone. Today, the bar is even lower for call recording: It works terribly and configuring them is a pain..

Google wanted to end call recording apps and while it wasn’t 100% successful, it succeeded the process is so difficult that many simply give up. I was able to verify this personally after trying four calling apps that survive, to some extent, on Google Play.

There are fewer and fewer apps for recording calls

On Google Play today we find a few applications to record calls among the hundreds that existed a few years ago. There are only old apps that will only work on mobile phones with outdated versions of Android and those that have been adapted to meet all Google Play requirements. These are the only ones that continue to work on a modern mobile, and Getting them into service is really painful..

To check the current status of call recording apps on Android, we tested thisFour of the most popular that survive on Google Play: Cube ACR, ACR Phone, Talker ACR and Call Recorder. The first three continue to work and the last one records nothing.

The journey into the wilds of call recording apps began with Android 9 Pie, when Google began limiting access to undocumented APIs, like the one developers use to record call audio. Since then, call recording apps have had to make do with record audio with microphonewith lower quality, using accessibility permission.

The worst news came around the time of Android 10, when Google ruled that Accessibility Services was for accessibility and not call recording, at least in its app store. As a result, call recording apps had to remove accessibility permissions to stay on Google Play. Without them they cannot function.

This change caused many call recording apps to be discontinued. Those who continue must have use a lot of imagination to make it work. The problem is that these imaginative ways of making things work involve a ton of extra steps for users and an experience that leaves a lot to be desired.

A horrible experience

An app on Google Play cannot use accessibility permissions to record calls and without them it cannot record calls. The solution found by applications like Cube ACR or ACR Phone is to keep a clean version on Google Play and use a helper app, which you need to download and install separately. This second application is the one that includes the accessibility services necessary to record calls.

This means that getting started with a call recording app today is an even more traumatic experience than it was a few years ago. Besides granting a ton of permissions, there comes a point where you need to install the helper app from an external locationlike from an APK on its official website or another app store.

This is annoying enough, but it comes with an added complication. Since Android 13, applications installed from an APK have Restricted accessibility permissions serial. Therefore, you cannot grant it accessibility permission directly, but you must first unlock its restricted permissions.

ACR Phone uses APH as a helper app and has found a way to avoid having to unlock permissions: install APH from your own app store, called NLL Store. Apps installed from a store like the NLL Store don’t have restricted accessibility permissions, although in exchange you have to install one app just to install another. No solution is truly optimal. The setup process is generally similar to the following:

• You install the Google Play app.
• You open it and grant a number of permissions.
• It tells you that it needs an external application to work.
• You download the secondary application from the official website and open it.
• You grant many permissions to the helper app.
• In the phone settings you unlock the permissions restricted to the help app.
• In mobile settings, enable accessibility permissions in the Help app.
• You can now record calls.

And an improvable result

The good news is that those 10 minutes you waste setting up the call recording app should leave it running forever without having to touch anything else. The bad news is that the recording is still of poor qualityusing the mobile microphone to record both your voice and that of the other person.

This means you can’t record calls if you’re using Bluetooth headphones (well, you can, but you won’t hear much) and you’ll usually hear yourself much louder than the other person. The only way to record good quality calls These days it’s either with root or if your phone comes standard with call recording.

Google doesn’t need to be the police of what can and can’t be done with mobile

Google has cornered call recording apps to the point where the security measures included in the latest versions of Android are no longer effective. Users are forced to install apps outside of Google Play, unlock their restricted permissions, and enable accessibility permissions. East a combination of the three most dangerous actions which can be done on a mobile.

While it is true that call recording is illegal or may have nuances in many countries, It is not up to Google to actively prevent its use. After all, many other functions of a mobile phone can be used for illegal purposes (such as recording or taking photos in prohibited places), and this does not mean that their use is blocked.

The users they will continue to record calls Well, if it rings, it can be recorded (with another cell phone or with a recorder, for example), so getting users used to disabling security measures in applications installed from external sources seems like a bad idea .

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