How to record call on phone without app

In order for this trick to work your provider needs to support the voicemail feature and allow own number calling. Be aware that this isn’t going to work for all carriers. But if you meet these requirements, you are good to go.

To record a phone call on your iPhone, call the contact in question or dial a number. As soon as the call has been established, select “add call” from the interface.

This opens your contact list. Select your own contact from your address book or tap the “Keypad” icon at the bottom and dial your own number. Then, confirm by pressing the green dial button. This will add your voicebox to the iPhone conference call.

As soon as the voicemail call is established and you have heard the beep that indicates that it is recording, go back to the interface and select “merge calls”. You are now recording the current call to your voicemail. The call is recorded until one of the parties hangs up and thus ending the conference call.

This trick works as a free call recorder for iPhone without internet. As soon as you want to transfer the audio file you will need an internet connection.

In order to save the recorded call from iPhone to computer, open up the “Phone” app on your iPhone and select “Voicemail” from the bottom button bar. Select the recording, then tap the “Share” button to e.g. send it to yourself via email and save it to your computer.

Tip: Your call history is long and you want to delete it for private or practical reasons? In this article we explain how to delete your call history on iPhone.

How to record a phone call on iPhone with app

There are several apps on the App Store that let you record calls on your iPhone – both paid and free. In the following we would like to introduce you to the app TapeACall that can achieve very good results.

TapeACall is a good choice when it comes to recording calls on your iPhone. You can download a lite version of the app from the App Store and try it for 7 days free of charge; here the recording of calls is limited to 30 seconds. It works both for incoming as well as for outgoing calls.

‎TapeACall: Call Recorder

Price: Free+

The Lite version is a great way to give the app a try. You will need to pay after the trial period if you wish to continue using the app. The Pro-Upgrade currently costs $29,99 per year or $4,99 per month. The subscription will automatically renew for another year if you don’t cancel 24 hours before the end of the subscription period. In another article we show you how to cancel a subscription on your iPhone in no time.

Recording outgoing calls

When you start the app for the first time, you will be asked to enter your phone number. After that, you will receive a message with an activation code, which you have to enter in the app.

After these first steps, you must select a local access number. Using your phone number, the app should suggest the correct country at the top of the page anyway. If necessary, find the right country from the list and tap it.

To record an outgoing call, open the “TapeACall” app and tap the red record button. Now tap the access number at the bottom of the screen and select the “add call” button.

Now choose a contact you want to call from the list and press the “merge calls” button to start the recording. As soon as you or the person you are calling hangs up, the recording ends. Tap on the play button to choose the recording from the list and listen to it.

Recording phone calls on an Android device can be a challenge. While Google's own Phone app offers a recording feature, whether or not it works depends on your carrier, region, and other conditions. You can always use an external recording device, but there are also several on-device options, from Google Voice to third-party apps.

Recording Limitations on Android

Google has never been particularly fond of call-recording apps for Android, at least not those from third parties. With Android 9, the company added limitations that prevented many apps from recording your phone conversations. The apps seemed to work, but when you would play the recording, you’d hear only silence or just your end of the conversation.

With Android 10, Google cracked down even further on these types of apps by blocking call recording via the microphone. In response, many app developers started tapping into Android’s Accessibility Service to record phone calls. But Google then updated its developer policy in April 2022 to state that it would not allow apps in the Play Store to use the accessibility service for call recording. That policy went into effect on May 11, 2022.

The company has even gone so far as to label call recording a type of spyware.

“Behaviors that can be considered as spying on the user can also be flagged as spyware,” Google said in its developer policy. “For example, recording audio or recording calls made to the phone, or stealing app data.”

In the past, people were able to find workarounds to Google's block, such as changing the audio source or format, turning the speaker volume as loud as possible, recording manually instead of automatically, and even rooting their phones. Others have since taken to sideloading call-recording apps through an APK file rather than downloading them directly from Google Play.

The version of Android installed on your phone also plays a role in all this. Apps on devices with Android 9 and earlier should still be able to record phone calls without bumping into Google’s latest restrictions. But apps on phones with Android 10 or higher that try to use the accessibility service may run afoul of Google’s new policy.

A Question of Legality

Assuming you’re able to find a working call-recording app, can you legally record a phone call, especially if you don't ask the other person for permission? The answer depends on where you live. US federal and most state laws allow phone recording if just one party (yes, that can be you) gives it the okay. Some states, however, require both parties to give permission to be recorded.

Other countries have their own laws, of course. To fully cover yourself legally, ask the other person for permission before recording the call. With all of those limitations, restrictions, and obstacles out in the open, here are some apps that may be able to record your Android phone conversations one way or another.

Phone by Google

Google’s Phone app(Opens in a new window) offers built-in call recording, but it’s contingent on a number of conditions. The app must be preinstalled on your phone with the latest update. You must be running Android 9 or higher. And most stringently, your region, carrier, and device must all support it, which leaves a lot of phones and locations out of the running.

Make sure your phone uses the Phone by Google app, and not Samsung's Phone app, for instance. If you have the right app, open it, tap the three-dot icon in the upper right and select Settings. Tap Call Recording to set up what types of calls you want to record. If the Call Recording option is not visible, then your phone can’t record calls through the app.

If you do have the Call Recording option, tap the Record button the next time you are on a call that you wish to record. When done, tap the Stop Recording button. You can access the recording under the Recents section of the the Phone app. Tap the name of the caller you recorded, select the recording from the list of calls, and then tap Play.

I've been working for PCMag since early 2016 writing tutorials, how-to pieces, and other articles on consumer technology. Beyond PCMag, I've written news stories and tutorials for a variety of other websites and publications, including CNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Macworld, Popular Science, Time, Fortune, US News & World Report, and AARP Magazine. I spent seven years writing breaking news for CNET as one of the site’s East Coast reporters. I've also written two books for Wiley & Sons—Windows 8: Five Minutes at a Time and Teach Yourself Visually LinkedIn.

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