this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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In Europe smartphones have all call recording features disabled. "Because of regulations". So corporations and scammers can record us whenever they wish, bu lt we cannot, even though it would provide us some defence. I thing the 'regulations' here protect the wrong side. Which is surprising, as EU is usually quite decent in consumer protection.
No. You're wrong.
By default - I believe if you are determined enough, you can record the call, if nothing else with a mechanical device attached to the earpiece of your phone.
That hasn't been a thing since Bell telephone landlines.
That's a thing any time you decide you want one bad enough to find and buy it, or make it yourself. For far less than the cost of your cellphone you can contract with people who know how to make you a 3D printed little bug that does exactly that digital recording, possibly leveraging your phone to do most of the storage and user interface work.
My google Pixel on Android 17 promoted me a few times to record it.
You’re actually both somewhat correct, it just depends on when you last checked! The guy you replied to is right about the old way it used to work. For years, Google blocked native call recording in Europe because of GDPR liability. Technically GDPR doesn't outright ban it, it just requires strict consent, but Google took the easy route and disabled it by default for EU models to avoid legal headaches.
Youre right about it being present in recent software updates tho because thankfully Google finally rolled out native call recording to European Pixels not that long ago. To get around the legal side, they built a mandatory audio warning into the app. The moment you hit record, it loudly tells the other person they're being recorded, which checks the legal boxes for consent under EU privacy laws.
Hell, I'm in the USA and I still remember call recording being disabled on my Samsung phone only just a few years ago. I also remember being pissed I couldn't record things such as my therapy appointments so I could simply remember things easier. It wasn't until years later when I was finally able to have that feature in stock OneUI/Android. You could also get that feature back if you bought an unlocked phone not tied to a carrier. Not sure if it is necessary anymore here in the US tho.
Call recording is super useful and should be available anywhere imo, especially for accessibility reasons such as the hearing impaired. If the average person gets their phone calls recorded every moment they call a company, then the average person should also be allowed to have their own recording as well!
As a resident of a one-party-consent state, I absolutely loathe that fucking thing. Who the fuck does Google think it is, to unilaterally decide that I'm not allowed to exercise my right to record without notice?!
That reminds me, I need to check if GrapheneOS gets rid of the asinine warning.
Most calls to companies start with you having to listen to their blurb about how they're unusually busy at the moment and need to press some numbers before speaking to anyone. Presumably hitting record during that stage is adequate for legal purposes but the company will never hear the warning, so do it then. Obviously that doesn't help with incoming calls.
I agree with that sentiment 100%. Tired of governments and corporations treating us all like a child on a locked down iPad with parental controls.
At that point I would just do what another person said and use a third party recording app if it is blocked on the OS level for you. The third party apps will probably have better features anyways, and some might not have the warning too. Bonus points if you can find an open source app on F-droid or something as well!
If I could install grapheneOS on my phone, I would in a heartbeat.
In the old terms: there's an app for that...
Even when the default app recording is disabled there are plenty of audio recording applications which work quite well - including with transcription. Ever need a transcript of a meeting? Put the phone in your shirt pocket with a recording app active - it's amazingly efficient.
I tried some of those apps. Sine would be 'Unavailable for my device', some would install and start, but not work, because if unavailable API and some would pretend to work, but 9nky record my side of the call (using microphone not actual call audio). Samsung decided this should not be available for me, even though it would be legal here. But I may give it a try again. Maybe thing changed.
Are you now CEO of Recording?
CEO of "dismiss this notification because I am trying to call someone"
Lol, is this USAian propaganda? Absolute humbug.