Truecaller’s call-recording feature won’t work on iPhones from September 30

10h ago | Source: Tech Crunch

Image Credits: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images

Truecaller is discontinuing its call-recording function on iOS — just over two years after the feature was launched — as the Swedish company opts to focus on its core offering: fighting spam calls.

On Friday, the company confirmed to TechCrunch that its call-recording feature will no longer be available on iPhones starting September 30. Users with saved call recordings can either download them to their devices, share them via email or messaging apps, or switch their storage preference to iCloud to keep the recordings accessible even after the feature is discontinued.

Truecaller’s head of iOS, Nakul Kabra, told TechCrunch the company took the decision because it wanted to focus on its Live Caller ID and automatic spam-blocking features.

That said, Truecaller had introduced call recording in the first place to entice iPhone users to upgrade, as the caller ID function is limited on the free tier. Paying users also get real-time caller ID, along with advanced and automatic spam blocking, Siri shortcuts, incognito mode, and other features.

Truecaller has around 3 million subscribers worldwide, but iOS accounts for 44% of its total premium revenue, per its second-quarter financial results (PDF).

In June 2023, Truecaller launched call recording on iOS for its paying subscribers, alongside reintroducing the feature on Android. The app also got support for transcribing calls natively. Both call recording and transcription were launched in India last year.

While call recording works seamlessly on Android, it is more complicated on iOS, where Apple’s operating system does not let third-party apps record calls natively. To work around this, Truecaller uses a recording line that merges calls to record — a method that increases both costs and complexity, per Kabra. These challenges ultimately led to the feature being discontinued.

The company has set up a support page to help users if they face any issues during the transition.

Truecaller’s move comes months after Apple introduced native call recording and transcription support for iPhone users in an iOS 18.1 update last year. The native feature does not require users to connect to a record line to record the call, unlike Truecaller, and also brings Apple Intelligence-powered transcriptions.