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From 11 May applications that allow call recording will be removed from the Google app store. The measure is due to a change in the policies of the Play Store, which will take effect from next month.
According to the informed by Google, the new policy prevents applications from being published that make use of user calls by not allowing them to have the accessibility permissions for it.
This position of Google regarding applications to record calls on Android is not entirely recent. Since the arrival of Android Marshmallow (2015) and later Android Pie (2015), the company had tried to take away ground from this type of apps.
This had forced call recording applications to have to depend on accessibility permissions, something that Google’s new policy is totally ruled out.
One of the reasons why the technology giant made this decision is that a significant number of applications, including those mentioned above, were exercising an inappropriate use of accessibility permissions.
Among these are the request permissions to install or uninstall other apps, see user notifications and thus bypass Android privacy controls.
This way G oogle promises that it will protect the privacy of its users, by preventing applications from making use of features for which they should not have access.
Alternatives
Despite Google’s announcement, users who already have with call recording applications you can continue using them without any problem. The only drawback is that these cannot be updated.
In addition to this, people will be able to continue installing this type of apps, however, they must do so by downloading them from unofficial application repositories. The main problem with this is that they will not have any security mechanism to protect them against potential viruses.
On the other hand, in the case of some brands such as Xiaomi, users will be able to use the native functionalities of their terminals to record calls. This way the Google ad shouldn’t have a big impact on the way they communicate and store the audio of their calls.
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