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Configuration Guide

Introduction

Ever release of Android 4.4 KitKat (API 19) / Android 6, native 3rd-party phone call recording apps have been killed for valid privacy reasons, with no visible effort from Android/Google in the following years to provide developers with any compromises or runtime permissions. In fact, in the following years, they kept closing work-around developers had founds to bypass the restrictions.

In an Android 11 development build, they created and new permission ACCESS_CALL_AUDIO and accorded it to the default phone dialer (still limited but better than nothing) that would allow call recording, only to quickly revert it while claiming, "Feature has been postponed [...] we're not doing this in R"

Meanwhile, proprietary apps like the Google Dialer and OEM apps can use the restricted permission CAPTURE_AUDIO_OUTPUT, and some do have the recording feature. However, they often choose not to offer it to most users, or they add their own proprietary rules on top of it, even if it is legal in the user country. Their apps are also often privacy invasive with telemetry or tracking in general.

Shizuku is the workaround to this issue. I would recommend you read Shizuku About Page wiki to have a very basic understanding of why we need this. If you are curious about the security aspects and how it works in more detail, you can read my blog post: What Is Shizuku? How Does It Work? Security Implications?.

Even if you do not understand everything, it will give you a basic, general understanding of why we must use it and what it allows us to do. This is probably a lot to read, but it's a one-time thing.

Installing Shizuku

Once you're ready to install Shizuku, follow the setup instructions on the Shizuku Setup Page Wiki. Please read them carefully, there is a lot of important information about its behavior and recommended settings to help maintain good device security.

Configuring ShizuCallRecorder

The Two Method

There are two ways to run ShizuCallRecorder, both dependent on how you plan to use Shizuku:

• If you plan on always having Shizuku running in the background and using it with other applications,
  • You want method 1.
• If you just learned about Shizuku, want it to only run during call recording, or want to do it the safest way possible,
  • You want method 2 (recommended).

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Method 1

This method is for users who plan to have Shizuku always running in the background. (Not recommended for general users).

This is the default behavior of ShizuCallRecorder. You can enable certain settings in Shizuku to reduce the chance of failures.

1. You need to enable Start on Boot.
2. You may want to enable Watchdog to automatically restart it on crashes (this create a persistent notification in the background).
3. ⚠️ You may want to enable TCP Mode to start and/or keep Shizuku alive without a Wi-Fi connection (LTE/DATA is not a Wifi connection).

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Method 2

This method is for users who plan to have Shizuku only running when needed. (Recommended).

To enable this behavior in ShizuCallRecorder, go to the Security section and enable Manage Shizuku.
You will then need to open the Shizuku application, find the auth key for intents, and copy it back into ShizuCallRecorder.
This step is required so that the app can control Shizuku on your behalf.

Once completed, the application will behave as follows:

• When you start a call, Shizuku will automatically be started, even if not recording.
• When you end the call, Shizuku will automatically be stopped.

To have more control over when Shizuku is enabled, you can enable Start only when recording.
When this option is enabled, the application will behave as follows:

• When you start a call, a notification will be shown, but Shizuku will NOT start.
• If you press the start recording button, or if an auto-recording rule is triggered, Shizuku will start automatically.
• When you end the call, Shizuku will automatically stop.

If you plan on using this method, note that its reliability could be improved even further! You can support the issue at GitHub. Please do not harass the maintainer, show your support by reacting with an emoji or explaining why this would be useful to you (in this case, for this application).