Besides the uninterrupted mobile hotspot, better call recording is one of the reasons I keep an Android phone alongside my iPhone.
Here are five reasons why I think the native call recording feature in the stock Phone app on my cheap Android phone is more useful than the one on my iPhone.
There is no point in waiting
When I start recording a call on my iPhone, a 3-second timer starts, followed by a disclaimer, and then the actual recording begins. All of this can easily take 5 seconds, and because of that, I have to keep focusing on the whole recording thing instead of the phone.
This on hold is not a big problem when I call customer support, as they usually have everything ‘press 1 for this…’ tone, and I can start recording well before I get to the person.
However, call recording on the iPhone is terrible if I just want to record normal person-to-person calls, like the ones I have with my bank relationship manager.
My Android phone, by comparison, starts recording the moment I click a button.
The option to play a tone instead of denying it for a long time
Another reason I don’t use my iPhone is to record regular phone calls “This call will be recorded” information that plays compulsively and is heard on the other end.
Now, I understand that there are laws about call recording, but they vary by country and local laws. In some cases, you need to inform the other party that you are recording the conversation, but in most cases, being a participant gives you the right to record the call.
Apple has a one-size-fits-all solution, forcing the disclaimer without giving us an option in the Phone app settings to turn it off or replace it with a simple tone.
Android, on the other hand, gives me a simple option where, instead of playing the full ‘This call will be recorded,’ it just plays a very short tone. You can open it on Android Phone app > hamburger icon > Settings > Call recording > Play a ringtone instead of a disclaimer.
Note: There are rules about camera shutter noise as well, so you can’t take pictures quietly in countries like Japan and South Korea. But iPhones in other countries allow you to take pictures without shutter noise. A similar way of recording phone calls would be great.
Automatic call recording
The Android Phone app gives me the option to automatically record all unknown calls or record all calls from specific contacts. The iPhone has no such feature.
Android saves call recording offline
All iPhone call recordings are stored in the Notes app and, by extension, in iCloud. There is no option to change this.
Now, even stock Android doesn’t offer an option to set another folder to store call recordings, but it automatically saves all call recordings locally on the device, which is what most people choose.
If you ask me, I like my iPhone to save call recording in iCloud and make it accessible on all my devices, like iPad and Mac. Second, I enabled Advanced Data Protection, which also ensures that almost all of my iCloud data is encrypted in the end. But some people prefer to save their calls offline, so, I have included it here.
Option to delete call recordings automatically
Android phones let you keep things clean by automatically deleting call recordings that are 7, 14, or 30 days old. Of course, if the call recording is important, you can export it yourself to Files or another application before it is automatically deleted.
3 reasons in favor of iPhone
Even though I use my second Android phone most of the time to record phone calls, there are undoubtedly experts in using the iPhone.
iPhone recording has never failed me
My iPhone saved a call recording file every time I used it (although sometimes I didn’t even have the option to record the call).
Conversely, there have been a few instances on my Android phone where the call recording failed to save. But note that this only happens when the call recording is started automatically (this feature is enabled) and there has been a recent call recording from the same person.
Second, when I’m on the phone on my Android phone and I stop the recording and restart it, the second recording isn’t saved for some reason. But my iPhone keeps recording more than one call on the same call when I stop and restart without hanging up, as shown in the screenshot below.
Call the transcript
Apple Intelligence in the iPhone Notes app can transcribe and summarize call recordings. But the stock phone app on my Android phone doesn’t have this.
Deleting call logs does not delete recordings
Since the iPhone stores call recordings in the Notes app, deleting call logs from the iOS Phone app does not delete the recordings. But on Android phones, deleting the call log also deletes its audio recording when someone is there.
Also, check out: 10 Android features I miss on my iPhone