In a time when our smartphones can help order pizzas, hail cabs, and detect heartbeats, you’d think it’d be easy to record a simple phone call. Sadly, it’s not. Despite what you may think, recording a call isn’t as easy as merely pressing a button on your iPhone, so in order to get it done you’ll need to install an app. There are tons of these littered across the Apple App Store and the web, and while many of them promise crystal-clear quality at a nonexistent price tag, very few live up to the claims. To help you pinpoint the right app for your needs, we’ve scoured the internet in search of the best call recorders and offered up a quick overview of our favorites in the paragraphs below. Just try not to forget about the whole legality thing.
More: Store your Skype calls for later reference with these free and paid tools
Editor’s Note: There are federal and state laws pertaining to the recording of phone calls. As a general rule of thumb, though, you shouldn’t run into any legal trouble if you capture both parties verbally consenting to the recording. Some states require that only one party consent, however, feel free to check your state or local laws if you need further clarification.
Record an incoming call using Google Voice
Surprisingly, Google Voice will record incoming calls for the stellar price of zero dollars. The only setbacks are that Google doesn’t allow you to record outgoing calls — only incoming ones — and you have to port your phone number over to Google to get access to the recording feature. This makes it rather inconvenient if you’re hoping to record any conversations that you yourself need to initiate, or if you like your current carrier.
Pro tip: The website GetHuman is a great workaround for recording customer service calls. The site allows you to notify a specific company that you’d like a rep to contact you.
To start recording incoming calls with Google Voice, you first need to set up an account. This is extremely easy — just head to voice.google.com and follow instructions. Once your account is up and running, the next step is to enable call recording so you can actually record and automatically save your conversation as an MP3 file.
Step 1: Navigate to the main Google Voice homepage.
Step 2: Click the gear icon in the upper-right and select Settings from the resulting drop-down menu.
Step 3: Select the Calls tab and check the box directly beside Enable Recording, near the bottom of the page.
Once you do this, you can record incoming calls by pressing the number “4” on your phone’s keypad during the call. Doing so will trigger an automated voice notifying both parties that the call is being recorded. To stop recording, simply press “4” again or end the call as you would normally. After you stop recording, Google will automatically save the conversation to your Inbox, which is where all your recordings can be found, listened to, or downloaded.
If you want to listen to your recorded phone calls on your iPhone, you’ll need to download the Google Voice app.
Launch the Google Voice app as you would normally.
At the top left of the app, Tap Menu in the top-left corner of the app.
Select Recorded.
Find the call you want to listen to, and touch the recording to open it.
Tap the play icon in the bottom-left corner.