How to Record Calls on iPhone

One of the potentially most useful newer features on iPhone is available in iOS 18.1 and later, offering a remarkably simple way to record calls on iPhone. Now, iPhone has an easily accessible call record button, available on the same phone screen that you use to toggle speaker phone, mute, and end the call. When you activate the call recording feature, a message plays for both parties to inform all that the phone call is being recorded, but it’s still probably a good idea to verbally confirm with the call participants that you’re going to record the call.

With this official call recording on iPhone, you no longer have to rely on the old tricks like calling your voicemail on 3-way, or recording from a Mac with speakerphone.

Calls recorded on iPhone are stored automatically within the Notes app, labeled as “Call with (contact name or phone number)”, where you can easily listen to the call again, review a voice-to-text transcription, and add additional notes if you’d like.

Ready to get started with this incredibly useful feature? Let’s dive in and you’ll quickly learn how you can record any call on your iPhone, whether you’re making the call, or you’re receiving the call.

How to Record Calls on iPhone

You can record any phone call with iPhone by just tapping a button, as long as the iPhone is running iOS 18.1 or later. The other party does not need to be using an iPhone for this feature to work.

1. When on an active phone call, look at your iPhone to see the usual phone screen
2. Look at the top left corner of the iPhone screen and tap the call record button



3. A message will play to all on the phone call indicating that the call is being recorded
4. When finished recording, either tap the same button to stop recording, or simply hang up the call as usual
5. Now, go to the Notes app, where you will see the recorded phone call as a new note, labeled as “Call with name/number”



6. From here you can access and play the call recording audio, review the transcript, add notes, share the call recording, etc

That’s it! It is that easy now. No more hoop jumping to three-way call your voicemail, or record with another computer or device on speakerphone, or setting up call recording hardware.

Recording phone calls is obviously super convenient for many reasons, but can be particularly helpful for situations where you might want to review the call or information discussed again at a later time, like for many phone call situations involving complex situations that are medical, health, legal, financial, scientific, or just otherwise complex in nature, or perhaps any topic with jargon outside of your typical area of knowledge.

What about recording FaceTime Calls?

Currently, the call recording feature only works with phone calls on iPhone.

However, you can record a FaceTime call by starting a screen recording during your FaceTime call if you wish to record it.

You will still want to notify all parties that the call is being recorded, to avoid any potential legal problems.

It’s certainly possible that a future version of iOS and iPadOS will include a native feature to record FaceTime calls and video chats as well, since that would likely be a popular feature for families and loved ones in particular. For the time being, the screen recording method works.

Legalities regarding call recording

It’s important to remember that every state and country has different laws about recording phone calls.

In the USA, typically it’s legal to record a phone call if all parties on the call have given consent to be recorded, but some states only require one party consent (nonetheless even if it’s legal in some areas, it’s a little rude to record a call without everyone knowing it’s being recorded, don’t you think?).

If you aren’t sure about the legalities of call recording in your particular region, it’s probably best to consult with your local laws, though there’s also information available online of questionable accuracy.

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What do you think of this easy call recording feature coming to iPhone? Do you think you will use call recording? Share your thoughts and opinions, and experiences, in the comments below.