Google announces it soon plans to ban all third-party call recording apps from its Play Store. This development comes after Google launches its latest Play Store Policy, which will be effective from 11th May 2022.
Call recording will be prohibited from using Google’s accessibility APIs under the new policy. The new policy would prevent developers from using the Android Accessibility API to record calls when submitting apps to the Play Store.
This effort of Google is a step towards providing better privacy for Android users by disabling Android’s accessibility APIs for non-accessibility reasons.
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The changes to the Google Play Policy, first reported on Reddit by user /u/NLL-APPS, mean that developers’ access to the Accessibility API will be restricted even more. In a recent developer webinar, Google also clarified any doubt regarding the policy change.
“Apps not eligible for IsAccessibilityTool may not use the flag and must meet prominent disclosure and consent requirements. The policy mentions the policy that the Accessibility API is not designed and cannot be requested for remote call audio recording,” mentions the policy.
Over the last few years, Google has taken several steps to disallow call recording software to be operational for Android by restricting microphone access for call recording with the release of Android 10.
Nowadays, many smartphone manufacturing brands are already providing built-in call recording options in their smartphone that allows users to seamlessly record calls without the need for downloading suspicious third-party applications.
However, if anyone still wants to continue using third-party apps on their devices, it is possible. Users can directly download the application from the developer’s website or any other application marketplace available for Android. This is possible as Android is an open-source operating system, unlike iOS, which restricts users from installing third-party applications.
