Getty Photographs | Aurich Lawson
Google has introduced a weird coverage that successfully bans call-recording apps from the Play Retailer. As a part of Google’s crackdown on apps that use Android’s accessibility APIs for non-accessibility causes, Google says name recording is now not allowed by way of the accessibility APIs. Because the accessibility APIs are the one manner for third-party apps to report calls on Android, call-recording apps are useless on Google Play.
NLL Apps—the developer of a call-recording telephone app with a million downloads on the Play Retailer—has been tracking the coverage change. The Google Play support page lays down the brand new legislation, saying: “The Accessibility API shouldn’t be designed and can’t be requested for distant name audio recording.” Google’s ban kicks in on Might 11, the primary day of Google I/O, oddly.
There is no clear cause why Google is banning name recording from the Play Retailer. Many jurisdictions require the consent of a number of members of a name in an effort to begin recording, however when you meet that requirement, recording is fully authorized and helpful. The Google Recorder app is a product constructed fully across the usefulness of recording conversations. Google would not appear to have an issue with name recording relating to its personal apps, both—the Google Cellphone app on Pixel telephones supports call recording in some nations. Google simply would not present the right APIs to let third-party app builders compete with it on this market, and now it is shutting down their tried workarounds.
The Android accessibility APIs are extraordinarily highly effective and allow all types of management over the Android OS. Google has stated up to now it will choose if the accessibility APIs have been solely utilized by apps meant for individuals with disabilities, however as a result of no non-accessibility choices exist for lots of the supported capabilities, many power-user apps plug into the accessibility APIs anyway. Google has stated it needs to crack down on non-accessibility accessibility apps but in addition that it needed to contemplate “accountable and modern makes use of of accessibility providers.”
Previously, Google has weened apps off the accessibility APIs by supporting a selected use case with a extra scoped set of official APIs, and it seems like that was the plan at one level for name recording, however Google ultimately deserted these plans. In 2020, the second Android 11 Developer Preview briefly added an “ACCESS_CALL_AUDIO” API for recording, however this API by no means made it right into a remaining launch of Android. It looks like going via with this may have been an affordable technique: first assist name recording with a correct API, then just a few years later block apps from utilizing the Accessibility API for name recording. As an alternative, the way in which Google went about it successfully bans all call-recording apps from the Play Retailer. The excellent news is, you may all the time sideload!
