Truecaller has announced that it will stop offering its call recording feature from May 11, after Google updated its Play Store policy. Under Google’s new Play Store policy, the availability of third-party applications for the Accessibility API will be restricted from 11 May.
Under Google’s new rules, all call recording apps, including all legitimate call recording apps on Android and Google Play Store, will cease to operate from May 11th. So if you want to record voice calls on your phone, you will have to rely on the original call recording feature available on your smartphone. If your smartphone does not have a built-in call recording feature, you will not be able to record calls after 11 May. Note that first-party calling apps and Google Dialer pre-installed on phones still allow users to record phone calls, in specific regions.
Reports have suggested that Google has made this change to give Android users more privacy and to comply with call recording laws globally.
Truecaller issued a statement upgrading this change that said, “Recording Truecaller calls was free for all, permission-based, and required users to enable the feature using the Google Accessibility API.” The statement also added that the company introduced this call recording feature to all Android smartphones after receiving an overwhelming consumer demand. However, under the updated Google Developer Program Policies, they can no longer offer the feature.
Under the new Google directive, the Accessibility API is not designed and remote call sound recording cannot be requested. The Accessibility API is also used by apps designed to help users with accessibility issues on Android.
With the introduction of the new rules, users using a smartphone running Android 10 or later versions of Google’s operating system will no longer be able to record apps using third-party apps. As we said earlier, the policy change will not affect Android handsets that originally had built-in call recording.
In addition, the smartphones that come with Google Dialer pre-installed will still be able to record phone calls, but it will depend on the region and manufacturer. This change will affect many users who frequently use the call recording feature. This can lead to users downloading recoding apps outside of the Google Play Store, which could make them vulnerable to data theft from malicious apps.
Also read: Truecaller crosses 300 million active users globally