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189

call recording app [released]

asked 2013-12-28 19:20:17 +0200

ortylp gravatar image

updated 2014-10-23 22:33:06 +0200

Automatic call recording app would be really useful.

  • automatically record all phone/voip calls (record all audio streams as soon as some other app uses microphone)
  • add "record" option while on call

Update 8.09.2014: it is already 9 months and there is no solution yet, I hope a few sailors could give us a hint how to tackle the problem.

Update 23.09.2014: thanks to @dmitriy-purgin and Jolla support we are moving forward, see answers below

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The question has been closed for the following reason "released in a software update" by r0kk3rz
close date 2015-08-26 15:41:34.551919

Comments

2

since this is using pulseaudio, it should be easy enough to record whatever you want. probably a devmode cli command to record whatever. that also should mean that it should be easy to make such an app.

AL13N ( 2013-12-28 21:14:39 +0200 )edit
2

Automatic is probably illegal, at least without consent. But would be nice if somebody tells you directions, phone numbers, to do lists, shopping lists, etc.

the_mgt ( 2014-01-21 13:25:45 +0200 )edit
17

Automatic recording is essential, I am usually missing the very beginning of the call, and the exact name of the person I was talking to.

Illegal would be if you play/give the audio to a third party. NSA is recording it anyway.

ortylp ( 2014-01-23 18:28:11 +0200 )edit
1

Tried to this through pulseaudio, but couldn't find any input that had the incoming audio. Anyone had any success?

evk ( 2014-01-24 12:17:09 +0200 )edit
3

Since my app request for Call Recorder is closed as duplicate of this request, without being linked here, I hereby provide a link: https://together.jolla.com/question/23038/request-native-callrecorder-app/

martinrusler ( 2014-02-14 16:59:28 +0200 )edit

10 Answers

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60

answered 2014-10-29 19:10:55 +0200

Dmitriy Purgin gravatar image

updated 2015-09-19 14:48:36 +0200

Hi,

A new version of native call recording application for SailfishOS is publicly available now. Current version is 0.6.1. I've put it onto openrepos.net and my personal page on github.io.

Please note that it requires SailfishOS >= 1.1.2, otherwise it won't record any calls.

Up-to-date information on usage, known issues and troubleshooting hase been moved to wiki.

New features:

  • Landscape orientation (#28);

Bugs fixed:

  • Length displayed incorrectly for recordings over an hour in length (#34).

Other notable changes:

  • Danish translation (new);
  • Finnish translation (complete);
  • Slovak translation (new).

Hebrew translation was submitted but there's a Hebrew font lacking in SailfishOS, and no tests were held for RTL languages.

Please help to translate the call recorder to your language at Transifex.

Please feel free to ask any questions not covered by the document mentioned above, propose new features, tell how to improve existing ones.

Thanks.

Cheers

Dmitriy

UPDATED AT 19 SEP 2015

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Comments

2

Thanks! It installed without problems. On the first call, the display went black for a couple of seconds, then came back and everything was ok. The call was recorded. I did a second test-call, to a number with automatic reply, and noticed that the things I spoke was recorded with a very low volume. Will make some more tests. I am very happy you made this app! Some polishing might be needed, and I hope I can encourage you by donating a "couple of beers" - do you have such an account set up?

martinrusler ( 2014-10-29 21:53:59 +0200 )edit
2

Hi,

I'm glad you liked it.

Recording your own voice with a low volume usually means that the soundcard didn't go to the voicecall-record profile, but if it didn't you'd be unable to hear the other party on the recording. Can you please tell if you had this?

Sure, more features will be added. Now it has only those that I personally used, but being public means gathering opinions and implementing them (at least most reasonable).

I have a PayPal account bound to dpurgin@gmail.com. Thanks!

Dmitriy Purgin ( 2014-10-30 04:48:39 +0200 )edit
3

@Dmitriy I tried to donate via paypal to your email, but it didn't work: I got a message saying you must configure you account to allow receiving money (my translation, original text was in Norwegian). Let me know when it is fixed :)

martinrusler ( 2014-10-30 21:53:58 +0200 )edit
3

I've just bought the Jolla here in Australia through ebay simply because of this app. Works perfectly, thanks Dmitriy.

Robin ( 2014-11-07 18:39:24 +0200 )edit

I installed and used the Call Recorder without problems. I set it to record every call, and it just plain works.

Great.

One thing I noticed is that when playing back a call that took more than one hour, the slider indicated the correct time, but the numbers only show minutes:seconds and omits the hours. This goes both for the indication of call length and the indication above the slider indicating present position in the playback.

This is on Sailfish 1.1.0.39

KristianES ( 2014-12-04 03:43:31 +0200 )edit
34

answered 2014-10-09 13:31:36 +0200

Dmitriy Purgin gravatar image

updated 2014-10-29 19:13:56 +0200

Hi guys,

Actually the fully functional voice call recording can be done on Jolla, it just needs some improvements in a pulseaudio module which were already made but not yet publically available. Jolla guys told me these improvements should be released with the upcoming update.

Meanwhile, I made a (mostly) working proof-of-concept which I'm using for about a month now on my own Jolla device. Currently I'm lacking free time to make a feasible GUI for it but the backend does what it should do - it records incoming and outgoing calls, compresses to FLAC and stores on the file system.

If anyone is interested in the source code or willing to participate, feel free: https://github.com/dpurgin/harbour-callrecorder

Cheers

UPDATE 23 Oct 2014

UPDATE 29 Oct 2014

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Comments

2

Thanks a lot bro..please keep ur your work and try to make it available for use..TIA

FaisaL ( 2014-10-09 13:40:02 +0200 )edit

thanks, I'll take a look

ortylp ( 2014-10-09 20:30:03 +0200 )edit

This is great! If you make something that works, with at nice popup after ended call where I can choose to keep the recording or delete it, I will donate some $$ for this.

martinrusler ( 2014-10-10 20:18:21 +0200 )edit

Sounds good. "systemctl enable harbour-callrecorderd" is easy enough for me, but I'm just assuming. Do you have time to document how you got it working in README.md?

Robin ( 2014-10-12 07:14:31 +0200 )edit

@Robin, the main work is done by Jolla audio guys, it allows us to access the other party's audio on the higher level. After the improvement is made public, it's just the matter of handling telephony events and capturing audio from the soundcard. Take a look at application.cpp and voicecallrecorder.cpp, it should be pretty self-explanatory.

Dmitriy Purgin ( 2014-10-12 17:36:31 +0200 )edit
21

answered 2014-01-07 20:40:10 +0200

FaisaL gravatar image

updated 2014-06-11 22:34:13 +0200

Well i now i have my JOLLA and its awesome but yes i BADLY NEED a call recorder..i would like to ask for native/ported call recorder like the one in Meego named Call Recorder cause that is one of the very important apps i use..thanks..and guys i had emailed the developer of Call Recorder of MeeGo who made the awesome app to port it on Sailfish and he replied me as well but he said that he is willing to port it to Sailfish but he doesnt have a Jolla Phone to test the app practically so he can't do that..I have asked him to let it get tested by some of his known or any Jolla user so that it can be checked..you guys can also mail him and request him for that..hope it works or Jolla makes a built-in call recorder like that..cheerS.. http://callrecorder.my-meego.org/

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Comments

5

Loved that call recorder in N9, hope to see one for Jolla too.

Jäävuari ( 2014-01-30 13:21:54 +0200 )edit
2

I would like to have native Call Recorder too.

jivica ( 2014-01-31 10:36:14 +0200 )edit

FLAC is a bit too space consuming, especially for speech. A nice feature is if the recorder activates automatically when there is a call and you can just leave it on as a daemon in the background (UI only for controlling the daemon). However, if it records all calls you really can't afford FLAC! I think the chip-set has HW support for some sound compression (AAC or somethng). If you can use a format with HW support it won't use much battery either!

00prometheus ( 2014-10-09 22:02:00 +0200 )edit
17

answered 2014-03-06 14:13:11 +0200

cvp gravatar image

updated 2014-03-06 14:13:45 +0200

Call Recorder .... nice to have. BUT an extra Application for it? Put a red button it in to the telephaty like Phone Call UI und push it to record the call. Maybe a extra setting to record all calls automaticly and stop record by finish/stop the call. Looks better and integraded in a OS.... of course i know, this can only done by jolla.

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Comments

2

plus to have a option to: Answer the call and
Answer the call + Record in the menu if you do not want to record all calls with the ability to cancel/resume the recording during the call

m2 ( 2014-03-07 19:56:06 +0200 )edit
10

answered 2014-09-09 15:30:57 +0200

rainisto gravatar image

updated 2014-10-09 14:40:04 +0200

Unfortunately 'currently' making call recorder app is not possible, as call audio is not available in Sailfish side nor in pulseaudio. Phonecalls are made in lower levels in android adaptation so you cannot listen in with any easy way. One could say that its a security feature that no application can listen in, but security 'feature' is just a side effect.

You can only listen the microphone, but that will always just lead to not-so-good experience.

Edit: in some future update there might come enabler to pulseaudio which will allow call recorder app to be made.

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2

Thank you for the clarification, even if it is bad news. I'd really like a future update to make it possible (e.g. a setting that allowed the audio to be piped to pulse audio, but I imagine that's non-trivial).

Jonquark ( 2014-09-09 15:38:24 +0200 )edit

@rainisto

Wasn't there some code in github that was trying to make this happen. I don't have the link but i remember someone (not from jolla AFAIK) trying to make recording possible through pulse. It was hybris related.

ApB ( 2014-09-09 16:29:44 +0200 )edit
2

@rainisto thanks for clarification. That means, that someone at Jolla has to create a way to get the needed functionality going. To keep some of the "security" it would be best if this recording capability were built into the phone app.

As I have already stated many times: this functionality is ESSENTIAL

ortylp ( 2014-09-09 23:36:25 +0200 )edit
7

@ortylp: maybe someone misunderstood my answer. It means, that it will most likely never happen in Jolla1 as telephony routing happens deep inside android adaptation blackbox which we have no access to modify.

Dont get me wrong, if some wizard like Qualcomm engineer with access to sources and love for libhybris manages to create the needed parts to libhybris and make call audio available on pulseaudio and makes call recorder application out of it. I would pay for that SW. But unfortunately I have better changes winning in Lottery.

rainisto ( 2014-09-10 00:18:03 +0200 )edit
2

@rainisto: do you know if the Linux kernel itself is still involved in the call audio, so maybe it could be captured using a kernel-based solution?

ovekaaven ( 2014-09-10 01:53:35 +0200 )edit
9

answered 2014-06-13 14:09:13 +0200

targon gravatar image

Since this question has not received further attention (after Recorder App appearance), I want to emphasize how important requested feature is and recorder app doesn't come in full help on that.

I have used my Jolla as company phone since November 2013! and it is too cumbersome to first search for recorder app every time when I pick up the phone to answer it. So recording must be automatic (from settings).

Occasionally I receive unexpected calls while I'm not at my desk (but driving car in traffic or so). It would be very important to be able to rely that I get needed details from call after I return to office. It is not always easy (and convenient to caller either) to stop the car in the next suitable slot and ask caller to repeat the details after I have searched paper and pen in hand.

Same goes with if I promise to list of things during long conversation. Recording is good backup to re-check that i didn't miss something.

And so on. all cases where I don't have opportunity to start searching record button(or app) separately.

Please vote for original question to get this implemented. I don't mind if it will be integrated to phone app or separate app, but prefer integrated (with proper settings like format, automatic recording, storage folder etc) to phone app.

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Absolutely, be it built-in or add-on app recording must be automatic. I'd prefer it to be built-in; record always after it's manually enabled in phone settings (default always off). Since not every call is important, I'd also suggest that recordings are automatically removed after a week or two unless explicitly marked "sticky" (at "call ended" screen, or maybe later in call log?). (I'd accept "copy recording somewhere else to keep during this week" as well if "sticky flag" would be too much work at first)

ToniR ( 2014-08-12 18:33:25 +0200 )edit
8

answered 2014-10-23 20:49:23 +0200

Dmitriy Purgin gravatar image

updated 2014-10-23 20:50:46 +0200

Just to give an update on harbour-callrecorder. It basically works with the opt-in update9 because Jolla has implemented the needed functionality into it.

The app has also a basic GUI now. It's really basic but allows you to see the list and listen to the recordings.

Thanks to @sledges, he has found a blocker bug in the recorder -- if a call is rerouted to loudspeaker, it goes back to earpiece as soon as the recording daemon is running. If you use earpiece only, you are not affected. If you listen to music/radio/whatever on the loudspeaker without making a call -- you are not affected. I'm currently working on it and just don't want to make any releases until such a severe thing is fixed.

If you don't use the loudspeaker too much and/or just want to try things, please feel free to compile & deploy the app from the source at https://github.com/dpurgin/harbour-callrecorder and use the master branch. The dependencies are listed in rpm/harbour-callrecorder.yaml so it shouldn't be a problem.

As soon as I fix the blocker (or blockers if any), I plan to upload the app to openrepos and will announce it at TJC.

If you wish to install opt-in update9 just to try the call recording, don't do it. You won't be able to downgrade

Cheers

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Thanks! Looking forward to the openrepos release!

martinrusler ( 2014-10-26 15:49:56 +0200 )edit
3

answered 2014-05-18 09:04:12 +0200

Jordi gravatar image

I found that you can record a call with the Recorder app in the Jolla Store.

In terms of usability and quality of the record, it's not the best solution one could imagine but it works.

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Does it record calls automatically?

avdwoude ( 2014-08-10 10:57:07 +0200 )edit
1

@avdwoude no... A call recorder app with automatic function like Call Recorder on Nokia N9 would be the best but a least there is a simple Recorder app on Jolla for the moment. We can manually record calls if we enable the loudspeaker, the recorded sound is correct. For information, some web platforms like Firefox OS don't even have an API to record sound and save it.

baptx ( 2014-09-25 00:27:39 +0200 )edit
1

answered 2014-09-09 01:18:06 +0200

r0kk3rz gravatar image

it should be possible to write a call recorder app with a D-Bus interface, which a service script can watch for an active call and start the Recorder App and set it to record.

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1

I actually have half the code for this in another project of mine. Is the available recorder able to record both incoming and outgoing audio? If so, it would probably be pretty simple to fix this.

evk ( 2014-09-09 12:19:34 +0200 )edit

yeah the dbus side of things is really easy. havent really looked into the service script side of things yet.

That said, the script is likely to not be allowed on harbour, so you'd have to install it yourself

r0kk3rz ( 2014-09-09 12:37:25 +0200 )edit
1

answered 2015-03-28 23:43:02 +0200

scribe gravatar image

what is default direcotry? wher this apps saves calls? whats is the filename format

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3

Here are answers to all your questions.

Victorious ( 2015-03-29 01:30:52 +0200 )edit

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Asked: 2013-12-28 19:20:17 +0200

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Last updated: Sep 19 '15