Best Call Recorder Apps for Android (2026)
Recording a call on Android used to be simple, then Google tightened the rules and a lot of the old apps stopped catching the other person's voice. We spent a few weeks living with the current crop on real phones, from a Pixel to a couple of Samsung handsets, to see which ones still work and which just record your side. One thing changed for the better this year: Google finished rolling out call recording in its own Phone app to all markets by February 2026, so for many people the cleanest option is now built in. Below are the apps we trust, with honest notes on audio quality, saving, and what each one is genuinely good at. Quick reminder before you start: check your local consent laws, because they vary a lot by region.
1. Google Phone Call Recording
On a Pixel or any phone running Google's Phone app, the built-in recording is the cleanest option, and as of February 2026 Google expanded it to all markets and languages. It announces out loud to both parties that recording has started, and the file lands right in your call log. Nothing to install, no ads, both sides captured. Non-Pixel phones need Android 9 or newer; Pixels need a Pixel 6 or later on Android 14 or newer. A handful of countries still block it for legal reasons, so it is not everywhere, but it reaches far more people now than it did a year ago.
2. Samsung Call Recording (built in)
If you carry a Galaxy phone, check the dialer before installing anything. Samsung bakes call recording into its Phone app on One UI, it grabs both sides, and like Google's version it announces the recording out loud. The catch is region: Samsung enables it in places like India and Turkey but disables it across most of Western Europe over consent laws. Open your dialer during a call and look for a Record button. If it is there, you already have a both-sides recorder with nothing else to download.
3. Cube ACR
Cube ACR is the one we reach for when the built-in option is missing. It records regular calls plus VoIP apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Skype, Viber, and Google Meet through Android's accessibility service, which is rare, and a small floating widget shows recording is live. On newer phones you sometimes have to switch the in-app audio mode before both sides come through, so test it first. Free with ads, with a Pro upgrade for cloud backup and PIN protection. It is still actively updated, with releases landing into 2026.
4. ACR Phone (NLL APPS)
ACR Phone is the modern successor to the original ACR, rebuilt for Android's restrictions, and it doubles as a full dialer with spam blocking. Here is the honest part: on Android 10 and up you need a separate helper called ACR Phone Helper, and since 2022 that helper leans on Shizuku to get true two-way audio. That means sideloading the helper and running through a Shizuku setup, which is more than a couple of taps. Once it is configured it records both sides reliably. Free, very tweakable, but budget time for the install.
5. Truecaller
Most people install Truecaller to dodge spam, but its built-in call recording is a handy bonus on Android. Worth being clear: Truecaller dropped call recording on iPhone after September 30, 2025, so this is an Android-only feature now, and even on Android whether it works depends on your phone model and region. Recordings save locally and sync on Premium. It pairs naturally with a dedicated caller ID app so you know who is calling before you decide to record.
6. Automatic Call Recorder ACR (Q4U)
If you want recording to start on its own the moment a call connects, this Q4U app fills that slot. Note the developer, because the old Appliqato Automatic Call Recorder that everyone remembers left the Play Store in 2023, and this is a different maker with a similar name. It records automatically, lets you set rules for which contacts to keep or skip, and includes a basic caller ID. Free with ads, with a Pro version. Like every accessibility-based recorder, two-sided capture depends on your Android version, so test it on a call you do not mind redoing.
7. Boldbeast Call Recorder
Boldbeast is the pick for stubborn devices where nothing else captures the far end clearly. It ships with a long list of recording modes you cycle through until one produces loud, two-sided audio, and it handles many internet calling apps too. On Google Play it shows up as Call Recorder (No Ads), it is free, and it carries no ads. The interface looks dated and setup is fiddly, no sugar-coating that. But on a phone that defeated everything else, Boldbeast finally worked.
8. Otter
Otter is not really a call recorder, it is a transcription companion, so we list it for what it actually does. It joins meetings on Zoom, Teams, and Meet, or you put a phone call on speaker, and it turns the audio into searchable text live. Good for journalists, students, and note-takers. The 2026 free plan gives you 300 minutes a month capped at 30 minutes per conversation, plus only 3 file imports for the life of the account. Pro is $16.99 a month for 1,200 minutes. If you need a clean recording of a phone call rather than a transcript, pick something else on this list.
9. TapeACall
TapeACall routes your call through a conference line so it can record no matter how locked down your phone is. That trick makes it one of the few that reliably captures both sides where on-device recording is blocked, though it adds a little latency and the cost of a subscription. It is current on the Play Store, is on version 5.0.7 as of June 2026, and comes with a 7-day free trial before billing kicks in. Setup means dialing a service number, which feels old-school, but the audio is clear and easy to download. The other party may hear the conference-line beep, so it is not discreet.
Why call recording on Android is hard now
If your recordings keep coming out with only your voice on them, you are not doing anything wrong. Google and the Android platform have steadily closed the doors that recording apps used to walk through. Android 6 removed the official call-recording API back in 2015. Android 10 went further and blocked apps from grabbing the call audio stream through the microphone, which is why so many older recorders now catch your side and nothing else. Then on May 11, 2022, Google banned apps from the Play Store if they abused the Accessibility API to record calls. Between those three changes, the easy path simply no longer exists. That is the backstory behind every quirk on this page, and it explains why apps take such different approaches to the same problem.
It also explains why the app you used three years ago may be gone. Plenty of names that used to top these lists are no longer installable. Record My Call from Coconatech was pulled from the Play Store at the start of 2024, and even when it worked it only captured your microphone. The original Automatic Call Recorder from Appliqato left in 2023. Rev shut its call recorder down entirely on October 31, 2025, and the icon now greys out and will not reinstall. If a guide is still recommending those, it has not been checked recently, and that matters because the only place left to get a dead app is a sketchy APK mirror.
The three ways apps record today
Once you understand that the simple method is gone, the current apps sort into three camps, and it helps to think of them as a ladder you climb only as far as you need.
The first and best is built-in dialer recording. The Google Phone app and Samsung's dialer record at the system level, which means they catch both sides cleanly, they are allowed to do it, and they announce the recording out loud so everyone knows. Try this first. If your phone has it, you are done.
The second is accessibility or VoIP capture. Cube ACR and ACR Phone live here. They work around the platform limits using Android's accessibility service, which also lets them record WhatsApp and similar internet calls. The trade is setup: ACR Phone needs its separate helper and a Shizuku configuration to get true two-way audio. These are your move when the built-in option is missing.
The third is conference-line routing, which is what TapeACall does. Instead of touching the call audio on your phone at all, it merges your call into a conference line on a server and records there. That works on any locked-down phone, but it adds latency, usually costs a subscription, and the other person may hear the join beep. Treat it as the last resort when the first two fail.
One more note on that ladder. Otter sits a little outside it, because it is not capturing a phone call at all in the usual sense. It joins your online meetings as a bot or listens through your speaker and writes down what is said. If a transcript is what you are after rather than an audio file, that is a fourth route worth knowing about, but do not reach for it expecting a recording of a normal phone call.
What actually matters when choosing
Reviews love to rank features, but only a few of them decide whether an app is useful to you. The big one is whether it captures both sides on your phone, your Android version. An app that records both voices on a friend's Pixel may record only yours on your handset, so test before you rely on it. After that, ask whether it handles VoIP if you take WhatsApp or Signal calls, since most recorders miss those. Check audio clarity, because a faint far-end voice makes a recording useless. Decide whether you want recording to start automatically or only when you tap a button. Look at where files are stored and whether the app backs them up to Google Drive or Dropbox, so a dead phone does not take your recordings with it. If you need text rather than audio, transcription matters, and Otter is the tool for that. Last, weigh the privacy and cost tradeoff: free apps usually carry ads and may upload your recordings to their own servers, subscriptions and conference-line tools cost money per month or per call, and either way it is worth asking who else can read a recording once it sits in someone's cloud.
Privacy and legal
Whether you are allowed to record a call comes down to consent law, and it splits roughly two ways. Some places follow one-party consent, meaning you alone agreeing is enough. Others require all-party consent, where everyone on the call has to say yes first. This varies by country and even by state, so there is no single rule we can give you. The safe habit, and the one that keeps you out of trouble almost everywhere, is to say out loud at the start that you are recording. The built-in tools make this easy: both Google's Phone app and Samsung's dialer announce the recording automatically, so consent is handled for you. With third-party apps you have to do it yourself, and a one-line heads-up at the start of the call is usually all it takes.
There is a second layer to privacy that people forget: where the recording ends up. A local file on your phone is yours alone. The moment an app syncs to its own servers or a cloud account, someone else can potentially reach it, so read what a free app does with your audio before you trust it with a sensitive call. Conference-line tools route your call through a third party by design, which is fine for a work call but something to think about for a private one.
Common mistakes
A few errors come up again and again. The first is assuming any recorder catches both sides; many only get your voice, which you find out after the call that mattered. The second is ignoring the recording-mode toggle buried in apps like Cube ACR and Boldbeast, when flipping it is often the exact fix for one-sided audio. The third is not testing before an important call, then discovering the problem too late. The fourth is forgetting cloud backup and losing everything when a phone breaks. The fifth, and one we keep running into, is trusting an app that is no longer on the Play Store; several well-known recorders were pulled or shut down, and sideloading a dead app from a random mirror is a security risk that is not worth it. And the last is confusing a transcription tool like Otter with a true call recorder. They overlap, but they are not the same job.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to record phone calls on Android?
It depends entirely on where you live. Some places only need one person on the call to consent, which can be you, while others require everyone to agree first. Because the rules differ so much by country and even by state, the safe habit is to tell the other person you are recording at the start. Several apps, including Google's own and Samsung's dialer, announce it out loud for exactly this reason.
Why does my call recorder only capture my voice and not the other person?
This is the most common headache in 2026. Recent Android versions restrict apps from reaching the call audio stream, so many recorders only pick up your microphone. The fix is usually switching the recording mode inside the app, trying VoIP or accessibility capture, or picking a tool built to work around the limit, like Cube ACR or TapeACall. Built-in recording in the Google Phone or Samsung dialer avoids the problem entirely because it works at the system level.
Can I record WhatsApp and other internet calls?
Yes, but not with every app. Standard recorders often miss VoIP calls because they live outside the normal phone system. Apps such as Cube ACR and ACR Phone specifically support WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and similar services using accessibility features. Put the call on speaker if the audio comes out faint, as that often gives the cleanest result.
Where do my recordings get saved and can I back them up?
By default most apps store recordings in a folder on your phone, which you can browse with any file manager. The handier option is cloud sync. Paid tiers of apps like Cube ACR and Boldbeast push your files straight to Google Drive or Dropbox, so you never lose a recording if your phone dies or you switch handsets. If unwanted callers are the real problem, a good call blocker app can stop them before you ever need to record. You can find more picks like this over on our Communication apps hub.