Google has announced a bizarre policy that effectively bans call-recording apps from the Play Store. As part of Google’s crackdown on apps that use Android’s accessibility APIs for non-accessibility reasons, Google says call recording is no longer allowed via the accessibility APIs. Since the accessibility APIs are the only way for third-party apps to record calls on Android, call-recording apps are dead on Google Play.
NLL Apps—the developer of a call-recording phone app with a million downloads on the Play Store—has been tracking the policy change. The Google Play support page lays down the new law, saying: “The Accessibility API is not designed and cannot be requested for remote call audio recording.” Google’s ban kicks in on May 11, the first day of Google I/O, oddly.
