Call recording apps banned on Google Play Store! But there is a loophole

A few weeks back, Google announced its new Google Play Store policy which will have a major impact on everyone using call recording apps. The new Google Play Store policy has imposed a call recording apps ban and it includes all the third-party apps. The call recording apps ban on the Play Store is from May 11, 2022. Google has been against call recording apps and services because of privacy issues. Even now, Google claims that this was done while keeping privacy and security in mind. Due to the same reason, the company has added a loud alert “this call is now being recorded” to its own Dialer app, whenever someone tries to use the call recording feature.

However, this new Google Policy prevents third-party apps from using the Accessibility to API (Application Programming Interface) for recording the call audio stream. Google has confirmed on its support page that, “The Accessibility API is not designed and cannot be requested for remote call audio recording. The use of the Accessibility API must be documented in the Google Play listing.”

Even as soon as Google announced the removal of apps that featured a call recording function, Truecaller revealed that it will remove call recording feature from its app.

There is relief though!

Well, the good news is that the pre-installed or system apps that already have permission to tap on the Accessibility API won't be affected by this new policy. As many smartphones from popular brands already come up with their native call recording feature, the change in the Play store policy will not make much difference. That means, if your smartphone has its own inbuilt call recording feature, then you will still be able to record the calls just like before!

Google kept the ban or removal of the call recording feature to third-party apps only. So, if call recording features are available on the Google Dialer that can be because of your device or region too. And your preloaded Dialer app with a call recording feature will still work perfectly fine. But the smartphones that do not have their in-built call recording feature will definitely need to worry!