What you need to know
- The Google Phone app is seemingly slated to get automatic call recording for unknown numbers soon.
- Evidence of the feature was recently found in a teardown of the Google Phone app.
- An audio warning will notify all parties that the call is being recorded.
Making calls may be one of the least common things you do with your smartphone these days, but that doesn't mean Google won't be trying to make the experience even 'smarter.' In recent months, the company has been working hard on upgrading the experience of its Phone app, making it compatible with more than just the Pixel line, automatically blocking robocalls, and even figuring out why a business is calling you.
Early last year, the company started rolling out call recording for the Google Phone app in select regions and now it's working on making it even better with the option to automatically record all calls from numbers that are not in your contacts list. Evidence of the feature was found in a recent teardown of the app's APK by the folks at XDA Developers, which includes strings that describe how the feature may work once it rolls out.
Some of the strings also include warnings about knowing about and following the relevant privacy and call recording laws depending on where you live:
You or the other person in your call might be somewhere that requires everyone to consent to being recorded. Everyone will be notified ahead of time that the call is being recorded. It's up to you to follow laws about recording conversations. Recordings are stored only on your phone.
As the above alert notes, all recorded calls will include an exploit audio notification informing everyone that the call is being recorded.
Google has yet to publicly announce the feature. As a result, it's quite possible that it may never be released or that it's significantly modified by the time it's finally released.
