Google will completely block call recording applications on Android smartphones

Call recording applications are extremely useful tools – for example in the daily work of journalists. In the editorial office, we use them, among others for recording telephone interviews or short comments. Unfortunately, soon the only way to record a conversation will be to put the voice recorder on the loudspeaker of our smartphone.

All thanks to the recent decisions of Google. Android developers have been waging an informal war with the developers of call recording apps for some time. Publishing such apps in the Google Play store was not prohibited, but the company from Mountain View effectively blocked the use of the so-called programming interfaces (API), without which such applications are simply useless.

Developers have successfully circumvented these blocks for some time by switching to other APIs. Recently, to provide their users with the call recording function, they used the so-called Accessibility API, that is, program interfaces designed to make it easier for people with disabilities.

However, there are many indications that the game of cat and mouse is over. Google has introduced changes to the regulations of the Play Store. Under them, from May 11 this year. it will not be possible to use the Accessibility API to record calls. Thus, the last gate for the developers of such applications has been closed.

Is this the end of Android call recording? Yes and no

It is worth noting that the changes introduced by the company from Mountain View apply only to the official Google Play store. This means that recording applications can still be downloaded from external sources and bypassing “Google curators”.

The problem is that there are some risks involved in using such third party applications. We never know if the application that is officially used for recording is not a Trojan horse that will try to steal data from our phone or eavesdrop on conversations.

Why does Google prohibit call recording?

Such a restrictive approach of Google to the issue of recording calls results from legal conditions. Google Play is a global store, and different countries have different laws regulating whether and under what conditions we can record phone calls. There are countries where recording of calls is perfectly legal, but also countries where it is completely prohibited.

How is it in the case of Poland? The Criminal Code states that recording a conversation that we are not part of without the consent of the interlocutors is a crime. The situation is different when it comes to the talks in which we participate. Here, in the event of the interlocutor’s disagreement, we are no longer talking about a crime, but about a possible violation of personal rights and civil liability.

In Poland, however, we can record our conversations without any problems, if we earlier informed our interlocutor about it and he agreed to such a recording.