Google set to eliminate call-recording apps on Play Store by May 11
Just recently, Esper’s Mishaal Rahman discovered a new self-share feature coming to Google’s nearby share which enables the transfer of files without approvals. Unlike the normal additions to updates, Google set to eliminate call-recording apps by May 11 on Play store.
Google has been releasing some updates which have been fixing some issues Google users experienced and now it just made some changes to the developer policies which will eliminate call-recording apps for good. Meanwhile, this change will not affect the normal call recording function that is already pre-installed on most devices but just the third-party counterpart functionality.
The policy change affects the use of the Accessibility API by app developers. Google clarified this in the developer webinar that ended a while ago. Google said that the Accessibility API was not designed and cannot be requested for remote call audio recording.
The reason why Google will eliminate call-recording apps come May 11
The Big G does this for privacy and security as it had already disabled call recording by default on Android 10 so that was why the Accessibility API was a way to bypass this restriction. This wouldn’t be available anymore as the company is going to eliminate call-recording apps on playstore next month.
Though the native call recording functionality on Xiaomi and Google Pixel devices, the MI dialer would not be affected. The presenter at the developer webinar says “if the app is the default dialer on the phone and is also pre-loaded, accessibility capability is not required to get access to the incoming audio stream, and hence, will not be a violation”. We are still allowed to enjoy the native call recording on our devices after May 11
