Summary
- Pixel phones’ exclusive features include Google Phone’s Call Notes tool, which uses AI to transcribe calls in real time.
- It currently plays a voice warning to alert users to the live recording and transcription, but an APK teardown reveals it could let users switch the sound to a simple chime.
- Google Phone could eventually allow automatic Call Notes transcription, which might not fall under the strict two-party consent laws around recording coversations in many regions.
Pixel users get all the good stuff. Google’s OEM smartphones get all the latest, greatest features baked into the manufacturer’s refined vision of Android. Constantly churning QPR beta programs lead to helpful Pixel Feature Drops, including the actively launching Material 3 Expressive redesign. The latest Google phone family, the Pixel 9 series, is currently the only set of devices able to use the handy Call Notes feature for AI transcription.
Typically, the automated transcription feature plays a voice warning upon activation, to explicitly warn participants it’s recording what they say — even though it doesn’t save the recording, only the words it picks up. According to an AssembleDebug APK teardown performed over at Android Authority, though, that voice could vanish, in favor of a pair of chimes uncovered within the software package.
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Who needs a call disclaimer, anyway?
Apparently it’s not legally required for transcription
The Phone by Google app does have a built-in mechanism for recording the audio of voice calls. The Pixel 9 Call Notes feature is not that. On the app’s help page, Google clearly notes recording is available only on certain devices and carriers, and those don’t include Pixel phones. Many phones and carriers restrict call recording, in part due to various regions requiring every involved party to consent.
Call Notes’ voice warning currently serves as that measure of consent to transcribing conversations when talking on or with a Pixel 9 phone. AssembleDebug’s code review revealed a new setting labeled “Play audio tone instead of disclaimer.” The teardown also uncovered a pair of audio files containing chime sounds that, logically, could be beginning and ending notifications for the less invasive disclaimer method.
Source: AssembleDebug / Android Authority
There may not be a specific legal issue barring manufacturers and carriers from allowing call recording in the US, but many choose not to integrate it — possibly to avoid any customers getting in trouble by unwittingly recording a conversation in violation of two-party consent laws. Either way, Call Notes doesn’t record to an audio file for future access, only for a one-time transcription. That could contribute to Google’s apparent willingness to eliminate the annoying voice alerting users.
This isn’t the only recent update to Google Phone’s Call Notes feature, which recently added the ability to automatically delete transcriptions after one, two, or four weeks. It also aims to implement automatic call transcription for all calls or just specific contacts — you currently need to activate it manually every time you use it. These refinements could go a long way toward making up for Pixels’ inability to actually save call recordings in markets including the US.
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