Recording a call is often associated with risky business, but the feature is sought out for many reasons. A call recorder comes in handy when you wish to ensure that you don't miss any vital detail during an interview or a business call without having to jot down things manually. However, getting a third-party call recording app from the Play Store is a no go due to Google's recent crackdown. Besides, very few OEMs offer a native region-agnostic call recording solution nowadays. This is where Basic Call Recorder comes in.
As inferred from its name, Basic Call Recorder's primary function is to record calls. Developed by XDA Senior Member chenxiaolong, the app can either work as a Magisk module or as a system app included on a custom ROM.
Most third-party call recording apps out there are a hit and miss for users, with only a few reporting desired functionality and others getting a buggy memory placeholder. Compared to such apps, Basic Call Recorder is an extremely lightweight solution. The developer embraced the KISS principle in the design. As a result, there are only two configuration options in the app: a recording on/off toggle and the output directory picker.
When it comes to recording the conversation, there's no in-call UI. Rather, Basic Call Recorder works silently in the background once enabled. The app does everything locally (it even lacks a built-in update option), so privacy should be the least of your concerns. Furthermore, the audio streams are encoded in FLAC at the device's native sample rate to ensure lossless recordings.
Here’s a rundown of the features offered by Basic Call Recorder:
- Supports Android 10 through Android 13
- Records FLAC-encoded lossless audio at the device's native sample rate
- Supports Android's Storage Access Framework (can record to SD cards, USB devices, cloud storage, etc.)
- Quick settings toggle
- Material You dynamic theming
- No persistent notification unless a recording is in progress
- No network access permission
- No third party dependencies
- Works with call screening on Pixel devices (records the caller, but not the automated system)
Since simplicity is a key factor here, you can't find any advanced options like support for lossy audio compression or workarounds for OEM-specific app killing behavior in this app. Moreover, the developer has no intention to port the app for stock, unrooted firmware.
If you want to give Basic Call Recorder a try, download the ready-to-flash Magisk module from the link below. For any app/ROM developers that read this, the app is open source, so you can take a look at the codebase, submit new patches, integrate it into your custom ROM, or compile the app yourself.
Let us know what you think of Basic Call Recorder in the comments section below!