From May 11, a new policy of the Google Play Store will prohibit third-party call recording applications from being downloaded.
Modifications to the Google Play Policy mean that developers’ access to the Accessibility API will be restricted even more. This has been used as a workaround for remote call audio recording, however starting May 11, Google will no longer allow apps on the Play Store to use the Accessibility Service.
In addition, Google clarified potential misunderstandings about the change in policy through a recent developer webcast.
Numerous apps allow recording audio from a call without the other party knowing. As a result, this policy change only affects third-party apps on the Play Store. On some devices, several default dialer apps, such as Google Phone, Mi Dialer, and others, have a native call recording feature built-in. The update would not affect the default dialer apps on devices like Pixel and Xiaomi handsets.
“Remote in this sense refers to call audio recording where the person on the other end is unaware that the recording is taking place,” said Moun Choi, Google content operations lead, during the special developer webinar.
“Accessibility capability is not necessary to get access to the incoming audio stream if the app is the phone’s default dialer and also pre-loaded”. As a result, there would be no infringement. Because this is a clarification of an existing policy, the new language will take effect on May 11th for all apps”.
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In other words, you won’t lose functionality if you can record calls using your pre-installed dialer programme. Call recording may not be possible in the future if you use an app downloaded from the Google Play Store.
