Google is planning to delete an entire category of apps from the Play Store: call recorders.
On April 21, Reddit user "NLL-APPS" uploaded a thread detailing Google's plans to amend a policy affecting the Accessibility API, which was used by Android developers in call-recording apps.
"The Accessibility API is not designed for remote call audio recording and cannot be requested," Google writes, which will likely come as a shock to any developers who have used it for that reason. In a webinar that was posted as an unlisted YouTube video, the corporation stated its reasoning.
In the video, Google claims that the built-in dialer app on an Android phone may record calls. However, recording capabilities cannot be provided by any program purchased from the Play Store if everyone on the call is ignorant that their discussion is being recorded.
However, according to NLL-APPS, "only [the] phone app that came with your phone or produced by Google can access the call audio," and that third-party apps can not. If that's the case, this regulation shift could mark the end of call-recording apps on Google Play.
