What you need to know
- An APK teardown of the latest Google Phone app has revealed that it could soon gain a useful new feature.
- Hints found in Google Phone version 43.0.289191107 suggest Google may soon add a new in-call button to allow users to record a phone call.
- Google Phone is the default dialer app on Pixel as well as Android One smartphones.
Google is reportedly planning to add the ability to record phone calls to its Phone app, which happens to be the pre-installed dialer app on the company's own Pixel phones as well as devices that are part of the Android One program. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has also started pre-installing Google Phone app (opens in new tab) on its phones for the European market.
The folks over at XDA Developers found hints pertaining to the call recording feature in the latest v43.0.289191107 of the Google Phone app. Strings found in the app suggest an in-call button will be added to the app in the near future, allowing users to start recording audio from a phone call.
As noted in the XDA Developers report, the addition of new code for call recording to the Google Phone app does not confirm that the feature will soon be coming to Pixel and Android One phones. It is possible that the feature could be intended only for Xiaomi smartphones sold in Europe.
While call recording was possible on Android devices in the past, Google stopped providing an official call recording API to developers since Android Marshmallow. Several Android OEMs enable support for call recording in their pre-installed dialer apps, although Google Pixel and Android One users are required to root their devices to be able to record phone calls.
