[First Look] Google's Android may get native call recorder support, at least on some phones

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on January 15, 2020) follows:

Google has always been the smartphone brand that has tried to bring in new and innovative features on its device. Take the Digital Wellbeing feature for example that was introduced with Android 10.

Digital Wellbeing is meant for cutting off the smartphone’s usage in the user’s daily life so, that the user can find the balance between digital and personal life.

But in an exciting turn of events, the Google 43 Phone app, which is the default dialer app on Google Pixel phones, and Android One phones, is slated to get a new feature soon.

According to a teardown of Google’s Phone app latest version V 43.0.289191107, it reveals that there are new layout, icon, and other assets related to call recording.

For naive, APK teardown often reveals what new features might arrive with future updates. But it may not be the case every time as developers can take down any of the features before its stable build.

The beta version of the Google 43 Phone app was rolled out via Play Store and has arrived for Pixel users. In the teardown, it also shows a new string that depicts a new button in the call UI:

<string name=”incall_label_record”>Record</string>
<string name=”incall_content_description_record_unchecked”>Record</string>
<string name=”incall_content_description_record_checked”>Recording</string>

Besides, with the help of this button, once you tap on it, it will start recording the audio from your phone calls. This feature was possible in the previous versions of Android till Android 9 Pie. After which it was removed by Google developers.

However, with the addition of this code, it is not sure that the Google Phone app will get the voice recorder app or not. In fact, we cannot be sure if this feature is exclusive to Pixel phones or some other branded devices.

Taking a look at the code above, one thing is clear that it does not feature any string that is meant for a specific smartphone meaning that it might arrive for Pixel and other Android One powered phones. We can just wait and watch this development until something concrete turns up.

Let us know in the comments below, what are your thoughts about this native call recorder in the Google 43 Phone App.

Update (January 29, 2020)

In an APK teardown by XDA, we get to see the first look at Google’s Call Recording feature in the default Dialer application. We reported earlier that version 43 added a few strings for this feature but with version 44, this feature can actually be seen in full glory.

There is a Record button in the home UI of the Dialer app during any incoming or outgoing call. Moreover, once you activate the recording option, Google will play-back a recorded line “this call is now being recorded” to the person on other end. And once you stop the recording, they will hear “call recording has now ended”.

It will be interesting to see whether Google rolls out only for specific Pixel models or even Xiaomi gets this feature as well. We will keep you posted once we have more information in this regard.

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