Recording Phone Calls

Hedy cannot record audio from phone calls directly on the phone — this is true on both iPhone and Android. If a call comes in while a Hedy session is running, the session is interrupted. There are a few workarounds, depending on your devices: take the call on a Mac and let Hedy capture it live, record with your phone’s built-in recorder and import the file afterward, or put the call on speakerphone and run Hedy on a second device.

Why Phone Calls Can’t Be Recorded

Hedy captures audio from your phone’s microphone — the same way Voice Memos, Recorder, and most other recording apps do. It does not have a separate path that taps into the call’s audio stream, and neither iOS nor Android will give an ordinary app that access:

On iPhone, when a phone call (or FaceTime audio call) starts, iOS reserves the audio system for the call itself and interrupts every other app’s audio session, so recording stops.
On Android, call audio is locked down by the OS. Capturing the call stream (uplink or downlink) requires a system-only permission that third-party apps can’t hold, and while a call is active Android only lets the built-in dialer or an accessibility service record — an ordinary app like Hedy gets no audio at all. (Google has tightened this across several releases, and a 2022 Play Store policy closed the last workaround.)

Either way, Hedy can only capture what its microphone hears from the air, not the call itself. This applies to:

Regular cellular phone calls
FaceTime audio and video calls (iPhone)
WhatsApp, Signal, Messenger, and other VoIP calls
Siri or Google Assistant activations
Alarms ringing during a session

How to Record a Phone Conversation

The right approach depends on your devices.

Option 1: Take an iPhone call on your Mac (live capture)

If you have a Mac, this is the smoothest option — you get a normal, live Hedy session with nothing to import afterward. Apple’s Continuity “Calls from iPhone” feature relays your iPhone’s cellular calls to your Mac: you answer on the Mac, and the call audio plays through it. Hedy on Mac captures both sides — your voice and the other person — exactly the way it captures the other participants in a Zoom or Teams call. iOS won’t let an app do this on the iPhone itself, but macOS will.

On the iPhone, enable Calls on Other Devices for your Mac (in the Phone settings); on the Mac, enable Calls From iPhone in the FaceTime settings. Both devices need the same Apple ID and Wi-Fi.
Start a Hedy session on the Mac, then place or answer the call on the Mac.

This works only for iPhone calls taken on a Mac — it relies on macOS letting Hedy capture system audio, which iOS does not. (If Hedy only picks up your own voice, it’s the same fix as for video calls: make sure Hedy has Screen Recording permission — see Mac Microphone and Screen Recording Permissions.)

Option 2: Record with your phone’s built-in recorder, then import

Some phones can record calls through the built-in Phone (dialer) app — the one category of app that’s actually allowed to capture call audio. Where this is available, it’s the cleanest option: record the call with the system recorder, then import the saved audio file into Hedy afterward to get a transcript, summary, and analysis.

iPhone: iOS 18.1 and later can record calls natively. Turn it on in Settings → Apps → Phone → Call Recording, then tap the record button during a call. The recording is saved in the Notes app — open it there and use the share button to send it to Hedy, or pick it from the Files app when importing.
Android: Google’s Phone app (recent Pixel models) and Samsung’s dialer (One UI 7 and later) can record calls in supported regions. The dialer saves the recording to your device; share it into Hedy or select it when importing.

Availability depends on your country, carrier, device, and local law — many regions don’t offer built-in call recording at all (for example, the EU on iPhone, and several two-party-consent U.S. states on Samsung). When it is available, the phone plays an audible announcement to everyone on the call when recording starts.

Once you have the audio file, follow Importing Audio and Video Files to Hedy to turn it into a fully analyzed session. (Importing audio is a Pro feature.)

Option 3: Speakerphone + a second device

If your phone can’t record calls and you don’t have a Mac, use two devices:

Put the phone call on speakerphone so the other person’s voice plays through the phone’s speaker.
Run Hedy on a second device — another phone, an iPad or tablet, or a Mac — placed near the speakerphone.
Start a Hedy session on the second device before answering the call (or as soon as you can after picking up).

The second device captures both your voice and the other person’s voice through its microphone. Quality depends on how loud the speaker is and how quiet the room is.

Tip: A Mac with Hedy installed is often the easiest setup if you’re at your desk — start the session before placing the call. For mobile situations, a second phone or tablet works well.

What Happens If a Call Comes In Mid-Session

If you’re already in a Hedy session on your phone and a call interrupts, what happens depends on which recording engine is active:

In most cases — on both iPhone and Android — Hedy attempts to recover the audio capture automatically once the interruption clears. You won’t need to do anything; recording resumes on its own once the call ends.
With the experimental Parakeet engine (iPhone and Mac only, currently in beta), Hedy pauses the session and waits for you to tap Resume after the call ends. This is intentional — the Parakeet engine doesn’t auto-resume from interruptions.
If automatic recovery fails, you’ll see “Audio Recovery Failed” with the message “There was an issue recovering audio after an interruption. Please stop and restart your session to continue recording.”

Audio captured before the call interruption is preserved — only the portion during the call is missing.

Why You Can’t Just Use a Bluetooth Headset

Routing the call through AirPods or another Bluetooth headset doesn’t change the underlying behavior — iOS and Android both still treat the call as a protected audio session regardless of where the audio is being played. Hedy can’t capture the audio stream of the call itself, only what its microphone picks up from the air.

Hedy System Requirements — confirm your device meets the minimum OS version
Hedy Background Operation Optimization Guide — keep long sessions running smoothly
Transcription Stopped Mid-Session — for cutoffs caused by something other than an incoming call

Still having trouble? Contact us through the chat widget and let us know the scenario you’re trying to record — we can usually suggest a setup that works.