Whether you're conducting an interview, hosting an important conference
call, or trying to trick a criminal mastermind into revealing his plans
for global domination, you'll need a way to record your phone calls.
If you have a smartphone, you’re in luck: There are apps for that. And
even if your phone isn’t especially brainy, it can record any inbound
call easily and at no cost.
Before you get your Watergate on, it’s important to note that different states have different rules
when it comes to recording phone conversations. Your safest and
smartest bet is to let all parties know in advance that the call is
being recorded, and to get their consent while you’re on the call (so
that you have a record of it). Both Google Voice and Call Recording Pro
inform the person you're calling that the call is being recorded.
IntCall works with outbound calls only.
Android and iPhone Apps
Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store are home to various
call-recording options—some free and some not, some good and some not so
good.
One of the better apps I’ve found is TeleStar’s Call Recorder—IntCall,
which is available for both Android and iOS. It works strictly with
outbound calls, and charges by the minute: 10 cents per minute for calls
in the United States. In my tests on an iPhone 4S, it worked quite
well. And you get 30 cents’ worth of credit to test-drive the app and
make sure that it does the job to your liking.
After you’ve recorded a call, you can play it back on your phone or you can email the .wav file to yourself or to anybody else.
If you’re looking for something a little cheaper, you might like Handsfree.ly’s Call Recording Pro for iOS.
It works with both incoming and outgoing calls, and costs just 99 cents
per recording (with price breaks if you purchase in-app “call packs”).
Those recordings are saved to the cloud, not to your phone, but you get
an email link to the MP3 file as soon as you hang up. The only potential
wrinkle here is that calls can't be longer than 45 minutes.
Android users may want to check out Clever Mobile’s Call Recorder,
a free app that supports incoming and outgoing calls. Your success rate
may vary, however, depending on the model of phone you have and the
recording settings you use (the developer notes that some trial and
error may be required).
A Universal Solution: Google Voice
If you can’t find an app you like, or if your phone doesn’t run apps, you still have one excellent alternative: Google Voice.
Whenever you’re on a call that’s been routed through your GV number,
regardless of the kind of phone you’re using, you can press 4 to start
recording and 4 again to stop it. (A voice will announce that recording
has begun, so all parties are aware.)
After the call, you can sign into your Google Voice account on the Web
to play, download, and/or share the recording. And all of this happens
free of charge.
The bad news? Google Voice works only with inbound calls. Other than
that, it’s the most hassle-free call-recording solution for smartphones
and dumb phones alike.
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