On Monday, Apple released new software that will enrich the lives of iPhone-wielding journalists around the world — and anyone who needs to make sure they get the exact details of a call right: a built-in call recording system. The new feature, simply called Call Recording, allows users to record a phone call by clicking a button. From there, the system notifies the recipient that recording has started by saying, “This call is being recorded.” This doesn’t seem optional: if you answer, the other people on the line will be notified.
This is definitely not an original idea. Every year I pay $89.99 – a disgusting amount – for a service called TapeACall. Allows me to record calls by conferencing on a 3rd party number. After I hang up, the app processes the call and I can email myself a recording of it, along with an AI-generated transcript if I want.
There are ethical and anti-competitive concerns about destroying independent developers who operate entirely within your walled ecosystem. But beyond that, the legality of recording conversations is never straightforward.
(Apple did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication of this article.)
Federal law is aimed at preventing wiretapping and requires that at least one party to the conversation be aware that it is being recorded. (That’s called one-party consent.) There are exceptions, according to Jonathan Peters, a media law professor at the University of Georgia. “Federal law also prohibits a participant from secretly recording a conversation for the purpose of committing a crime or tort,” he told me. “For example, making a recording with the intention of blackmailing or threatening someone with the recording.” And if the call is broadcast live (or recorded and then played during a broadcast), the caller must be notified.
But eleven states, including California and Florida, have stricter recording laws than the federal government. These are two-party (also called all-party) consent states. They require that each participant in a conversation agrees to the recording in question. “Most states with two-party consent rules allow ‘inferred consent,’ where the party is notified that the conversation is being recorded and chooses to move forward,” Cody Venzke, senior policy advisor at the American Civil Liberties Union, told me.
In other words, most of these states do not require verbal consent from the person being recorded. With its automatic notification system (unlike other call recording apps like TapeACall), Apple’s new feature appears designed to meet inferred consent requirements, he added.
Things can get complicated when people record across state lines. “If a woman lives in Georgia, but has a cell phone number in Ohio and is on vacation in California, and she gets a call from a man in Vermont, and she wants to record their conversation, what law applies?” Peters noted.
Jennifer Nelson, senior attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, provides legal training to journalists. She said she is unsure that Apple’s notice is sufficient to comply with all parties’ recording laws. “In my editorial training, I always advise journalists that the best course of action in an all-party consent jurisdiction is to obtain the affirmative consent of all parties during the call before the recording takes place,” she said. “This may mean asking for permission, starting the recording, and then reconfirming during the recorded portion of the call that everyone agrees it’s okay to record.” Better safe than sorry.
After an hour of updating my iPhone to iOS 18.1, I made two calls to test the system. First I called my editor, Tony Tran, on his Android. Then I called my mother on her iPhone. On each call, I pressed a button in the upper left corner to start recording, and the participant and I both heard the message: “This call is being recorded.” Nothing else appeared on their screens.
When we finished, I had a very high quality recording and, after a minute, a medium quality transcription in my iPhone Notes. (There were a few times where the transcription was done incorrectly, and you can imagine that if the speakers involved have accents – not to mention speaking in languages not supported by Apple’s transcription system – this will increase the number of errors increase.)
Venzke expressed concern that the AI transcripts could be sent to OpenAI, which has a partnership with Apple. The company, which makes ChatGPT, has integrated some of the new Apple Intelligence features, such as Siri, but the Call Record feature appears to be entirely Apple’s own model.
It looks like Apple’s Call Recording will save me money by potentially ruining a third-party app I rely on. But even if Apple offers this product for free, it’s making money in another way: All these local recordings and transcriptions will definitely increase my monthly iCloud bill.
