Truecaller brings call recording for premium subscribers on both iOS and Android

Truecaller, a caller identity app for iOS and Android, has made it possible to record calls. Truecaller is circumventing this limitation by calling a dedicated recording line, despite the fact that restrictions on both operating systems prevent apps from recording calls directly.

To begin recording a call, Android users can use Truecaller’s dialer directly. Truecaller will show them a floating recording button if they are dialing from another application.

The procedure is a little more involved on iOS. Users will need to use the Truecaller app to call a recording line and merge the calls for both incoming and outgoing calls. The business confirmed that a beep will sound to let the other person on the line know the call is being recorded.

In particular, Truecaller made call recording available to premium Android users in 2018 and to all Android users in 2021. However, in 2022, Google restricted users’ access to its Accessibility API, which was utilized by numerous applications, including Truecaller, to record calls. As a result, the feature had to be removed from the app.

The company said that in addition to recording calls, it will offer users transcripts, which it plans to launch in the coming weeks. Moreover, clients will actually want to look through records to find data in the recorded discussions without any problem.

Over the phone, the company’s Cloud Telephony Product Director, Raphael Mimoun, informed TechCrunch that Truecaller will not store any data in the cloud and that all recordings and transcripts will be stored on the device.

Truecaller uses a lot of technology from CallHero, a Mimoun-founded startup that the Swedish company bought last year to make all of this easier.

The method used by Truecaller is not unique. Tapeacall and RecMycalls, two solutions, have utilized similar call recording methods. The Swedish company claims that its method forges a new path by storing data locally and not collecting user information.

In 2022, an article in the Indian magazine The Caravan claimed that Truecaller gathered users’ data without their permission. In a statement issued later, the company denied these allegations.

Truecaller has been testing this feature with a small number of iOS users in the United States; as of right now, the company is introducing it to all premium subscribers. Truecaller now offers three plans in the United States with this rollout: a lower-tier plan with a call recording feature for $3.99 per month, a higher-tier plan with a call screening assistant for $4.99 per month, and a basic plan without ads for $1 per month.

Truecaller co-founder Nami Zarringhalam stated that the company intends to implement this feature in a number of nations, including India, the company’s largest market. It is also looking into ways to let users know if an AI is on the other end of the call. Duplex, a conversational assistant that helped you schedule appointments, was launched in 2018 by Google. The company stated at the time that it designed the bot to sound natural.

According to Zarringhalam, the company is reorganizing its subscription tiers and has begun considering ways to provide distinct levels with features that make sense for users at each price point.

In the United States, Truecaller has more than half a million users, and the company claims that 10% of those users are on a subscription plan. With over 350 million users worldwide, India is the company’s largest market with 100 million users.

The company stated in its most recent earnings report that the number of subscribers increased by 18% year over year. According to these findings, advertising brought in the majority of the company’s revenue, while subscriptions accounted for approximately 12% of the company’s revenue despite the rise in paid users.