Google has made clean house in Play Store to weed out bad apps, but it breaks some features in the process. If you trusted that a particular third-party app should do call recording, you may not have access to it soon.
As reported by Android policethe developer of the well-known Call Record ACR app has Sent to Save your to air their complaints about an upcoming change to Play Store’s policy. Earlier this month, Google announced that Android apps would be banned from using the Accessibility API to record calls outside of its intended use. It’s the specific API developers use to create these apps, even if it’s not made for this purpose. As the name suggests, it is actually an accessibility feature.
Google’s Accessibility API policy is that it “is not designed [for] and can not be requested for long distance audio recording. “In other words, tThe apps that are currently using it for this particular feature are technically at odds with its intended use. The new rules take effect on May 11, which coincidentally is also the first day of Google’s developer conference.
In a follow-up webinar for developers, Google extended its policy changes. An employee who moderated the event explained that the new policy affects apps that record calls without making it explicit to the other person on the line, which may run up against various state laws. Developers wishing to maintain this access must add a disclaimer and require explicit consent before the call is recorded, or use another method of recording calls.
As a journalist who is addicted to recording everything to get it on record, I can understand how frustrating this news is for people who will have to figure out a new way around in a routine workflow. I can also see why Google is taking this step. As I mentioned, the company barely has its Play Store policies down, all to sell more people on Android devices and the rest of the ecosystem.
Google still allows recording of calls on it Google Phone app, which some have criticized as not a developer-friendly feature. But Samsung phone app can still record, precisely because it does not use the Accessibility API. In any case, it makes sense that Google will allow its own product to use the Accessibility API that it manages. I’m wondering if there’s a future where Google separates call recording away from accessibility options and reopens it up to developers, about to get back in their good likes or just to retain this feature on Android phones.