Can You Record A Cellphone Conversation?
Picture the following scenario…you line up an interview for your blog with someone from a very well known company and they request that you call them for the interview.
At first you are so ecstatic that you were able to land this interview…
Then you realize that you will have to make the telephone call from your cellphone and would prefer not to have to rely solely on your ability to feverishly take notes while conducting the interview.
Crap!
The first instinct is to punch up Google and do a little searching to see how you can record a cellphone conversation. After spending an hour reading about all of the husbands and wives that suspect their spouse of cheating and want to catch the dirtbag on the phone, you realize there don’t seem to be many options.
At this point I have only come across two options that look like they might work:
- Option #1 - Use a digital voice recorder and conduct the entire phone conversation while on speaker phone. Depending on the quality of the recorder and the clarity of the cell reception, you might get a decent recording.
- Option #2 - Use a digital voice recorder connected to a telephone recording device, similar to either of the following: Radio Shack or Amazon
. User reviews are somewhat mixed but this might provide a quality recording.
Neither of these options are quite as seamless as I had been hoping for but there might not be any other choice.
I’ve read that certain cellphones have a feature that will allow you record your conversation - but after looking at the two cellphones that I have it doesn’t look like this feature is available.
Another thought was to use Skype, which I believe has the ability to record a conversation. However, I cannot guarantee that I will be at my computer during the phone call so I would prefer not to rely on that option.
Therefore I am putting out the request to all of you…please let me know if you are aware of any other method that can be used to record a conversation on a cellphone.
One final note - I would certainly disclose to the interviewee that they were being recorded and ask for their permission to avoid any legal issues of recording a conversation.
Kind of ironic but I found this video just now by accident and I thought you might be interested in it. It provides a step by step guide on how to create a cell phone eavesdropper with stuff most people have in their homes. Enjoy!
Oops, heres the link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5c7_1195544622
Some cellphones do have inbuilt facility. You can try Nokia’s website and ask for help.
yes,nice phone program.im using
Star something forwards cell calls to a land line. I know radio shack has a devide for like ten bucks that will record a land line.
Duct tape your mini cassette recorder to your cell the day he’s supposed to call, then just record it. The quality will probably suck but you can transcribe from it.
Hope Leo’s link works, that sounds like the best one.
@Leo :: Thanks for that link. That looks like a really cool idea and a fun project regardless of my need to record this conversation.
@HRS :: You’re right…I actually looked at a new phone today that had this capability. However I went with a cheaper option that will be tested tomorrow.
@Damien :: I actually went to Radio Shack and bought the one recorder that I mentioned in the post along with a digital recorder. Tomorrow I will be testing it to see how well it records but it looks like it should work.
Sorry cant help you there, but i do have a 7 year old cell phone (i am not kidding and it is still very much in operation) which has memo recording (its a Panasonic) so you can record a phone number or a 15 sec slot as the speakers converse. I think this is the feature my husband loves so much and therefore refuses to get rid of this phone. I think it will soon be an antique piece.
Use three way calling. All you gotta do is make another call to a voice mail service when you start your interview. It’ll smoothly record the entire conversation.
http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2005/04/telecom_tips_recording_telepho.html
Ling above me has a good suggestion. I was thinking something similar.
I didn’t know that some cell phones can record converstaions. That is wild! I wonder which ones do??
LG’s do. At least mine does. its a VX6000. Cheers.
Cellphone speakers are very loud these days. I can sometimes hear both sides of a conversation, when someone is making a call in the same room.
So, any half decent recorder and mike should so. Just turn the phone speaker volume up, and stick the mike near enough(?)
usually this is what i normally would do
use my W610i’s loudspeaker and use my laptop mic to record the conversation
If you try Ling’s suggestion, just make sure that your voicemail service can handle it. I tried this once and found that my voicemail cut off after about 3 minutes.
A friend of mine’s got a built-in voice recorder in his cell, but I forgot the model…
I’am using this program, very good!
when did the interview take place, did you manage to resolve the problem in the end Derek?
Actually, the original interview that this was to be used for was postponed and is now being done via email. The best solution that I have used is with GrandCentral and the ability to record a call, although that is not guaranteed to be reliable.
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