Recording calls on Android is increasingly difficult due to some limitations imposed by Google, especially with the update to Android 11. This is due to some legal issues in certain countries where recording a call is not always it's possible. However, this does not apply in Italy where current legislation allows the recording of a call provided that the person recording participates in the conversation but above all that the use does not differ from personal or judicial use. It is therefore forbidden to disclose a recorded conversation without the permission of the participants for any purpose. However, we address the legal issue in more detail in the final lines of this study.
A free app to record calls
To do this, we have identified an application that is compatible with almost all Android smartphones; its name is Cube Call Recorder ACR and allows the recording of calls (in a legal way), which differs from many others for the possibility (on some smartphones) to also record VOIP calls through services such as Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Skype and the like.
The main features offered by the free version are as follows:
The Premium version, available by subscription at a price of €2.09 every 3 months, adds the following features:
Cube Call Recorder ACR is available for Android for free, supported by advertisements in the middle of the recording list and the subscription option seen above. It requires access permissions to: contacts, phone, location (optional), photos/items media/files, storage, microphone, WiFi connection information, device ID, and call data. The app also requires the app to appear on top of other apps for the in-call overlay to work.
To record VOIP calls, however, it is necessary to enable an accessibility service called Cube ACR App Connector, which allows the app to observe user actions and retrieve content from windows. Recording such calls on Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Skype and the like is not available on all smartphones. However, even if it is not available, it is possible to activate the accessibility service via the app settings and select the microphone as the audio source for VOIP calls. With this method, VOIP registration has also been found to work on some unofficially enabled smartphones.
How to record calls on Android
In this video we explain how to best use the Cube ACR application with some useful tips, follow the download link on the Google Play Store.
Is it legal to record calls?
Taking advantage of StudioLegaleMarella.it's in-depth analysis on the subject, let's start from the fundamental question, without which it would be useless to proceed with the discussion: is it legal to record phone calls in Italy? Is it therefore permissible to carry out what could appear as a "violation" of privacy? The answer is yes, but under one fundamental condition: the person who records must necessarily be part of the conversation, otherwise we pass to the so-called "interception", disciplined very rigorously; even in the context of a criminal trial (unless it obviously involves authorized police forces), it would be inadmissible and unusable without the explicit consent of the intercepted person.
If the registration is made by a participant, the offense referred to in article 615-bis of the Criminal Code is not configurable ("illegal interference in private life"); the Court of Cassation, already in 1999 with sentence 7.239, and above all in 2003 with sentence 36.747, established that "recordings (both telephone and photographic) of interviews, meetings, even without the knowledge of the interested party, are perfectly lawful and are equivalent to taking written notes; not only that, the so-called "phonic recording" constitutes a valid element of evidence before the judge". This is because in fact the phone would do nothing but memorize what the person already picks up on their own. Obviously, there are also very strict rules governing unauthorized dissemination: it is therefore possible to record a conversation, but not disseminate it.
Source and insight into the legal issue: StudioLegaleMarella.it