Google Will Kill Call Recording Apps in the Play Store Next Month
Android apps used to be the wild west—Google would allow almost anything into the store, even apps that could root your phone with a single tap. The company has clamped down on such excesses, usually to the benefit of users. However, one upcoming change has people rankled. Next month, Google plans to enforce restrictions on the Accessibility API, which means all the best call recording apps will be banned or forced to downgrade to a more primitive method of recording.
Google made the announcement in an off-handed fashion earlier this month during an hour-long seminar on developer policy changes. At just shy of 19 minutes into the video below, a Googler notes that the Accessibility API is not designed for, and cannot be used, to record phone calls. That’s a problem for some very popular apps, which have leveraged this feature to do just that. The presentation glosses over the change in barely a minute, and the only justification is that it’s better for user security.
The Accessibility API is there to help developers create apps for people with disabilities. For example, you could create an app that reads text on the screen or a voice-based input system that helps those with motor impairments. None of that is changing, but apps that use Accessibility to capture and save phone call audio will be banned as of May 11th. Google has been moving toward a more restrictive set of Accessibility APIs for several years, so this change doesn’t come as a shock.
Recording call audio is a touchy subject in some places. While it’s almost assumed that calls will be recorded in India, there are plenty of states in the US where you can only record calls with the consent of all parties. Pixel phones even support call recording in many countries, but not in the US, Canada, or most of Europe.
While this will make call recording apps harder to find, they could still exist. Google allows users to install apps from outside the Play Store—you just have to jump through a few hoops in settings and bypass a scary warning. Without access to the Play Store, though, developers would have a hard time making a business out of call recording apps. Apps in the Play Store will most likely resort to recording from the speakerphone, which is a much less effective way to do it, but Google isn’t giving developers any other options.
Continue reading
New Intel Rocket Lake Details: Backwards Compatible, Xe Graphics, Cypress Cove
Intel has released a bit more information about Rocket Lake and its 10nm CPU that's been back-ported to 14nm.
ARMing for War: New Cortex-A78C Will Challenge x86 in the Laptop Market
ARM took another step towards challenging x86 in its own right with the debut of the Cortex-A78C this week. The new chip packs up to eight "big" CPU cores and up to an 8MB L3 cache.
The Xbox Series S Is Handicapped by Its Storage Capacity
The Xbox Series S has been favorably received, for the most part, but the console's low base storage makes the Xbox Series X a better value for a lot of people.
In Massive Shift, Apple Announces New Macs With ARM-Based M1 Chip
Apple saw huge success the last time it switched architectures to Intel, but this time? The jury's still out, but one thing is certain: Apple is about to make a lot more money.