A while back, I was put under anesthesia for surgery. As I was waiting for the anesthesia to wear off, someone had the bright idea to let my loopy self call my partner to let him know I was ok.
The phone call was hilarious. Or so I’m told—I have very little recollection of it. And my partner didn’t think to record it so that we could play it for friends and family for all of eternity.
So consider this entire tutorial a subtweet of my partner’s inability to press a record button. Honey, here’s how to record a call on your iPhone.
Note: Before you record a call, you should (and, depending on where you live, must) let anyone you’re recording know.
Table of contents:
How to record a call on an iPhone
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to record a call on your iPhone.
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Make a phone call as you normally would.
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Once the other person has answered, tap the call recording icon (it looks like sound waves) on the top-left corner of your screen.
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The first time you ever record a phone call, a pop-up will appear explaining the feature to you. Tap Continue.
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You and the person on the other end of the call will hear a short notice that the call is being recorded.
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Once you’re done recording, tap the Stop button that appears on the recording monitor—or just hang up, and your recording will automatically stop.
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Your recording, along with a transcript, is automatically saved in your Notes app. Tap Play to listen to the recording. Or delete the note to delete the recording.
Note: Only iPhones running on iOS 18 or later can record calls. To check if you’re up to date, open your iPhone Settings, tap General, tap About, and your current version will be listed next to iOS Version. If you’re not at 18 or above, go back to General, tap Software Update, and then tap Update Now.
How to stop someone from recording your call on an iPhone
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in iPhone feature that lets you block someone from recording your call. But when someone tries to record your call, you’ll hear a notice that the call is being recorded. At that point, you can either ask them to stop or hang up.
Hit record
Hopefully, you’ll never find yourself in a post-anesthesia haze making comedy gold on a phone call with no evidence to show for it. But if you want to keep a record of something important—or highly embarrassing—you now know exactly what to do.
Just remember to give everyone a heads-up before hitting record. Then go forth, make your calls, and capture the moments worth replaying.
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