Recording Phone Calls on iPhone

Hedy on iPhone cannot record audio from phone calls. If a call comes in while a Hedy session is running, the session is interrupted. The reliable workaround is to put the call on speakerphone and run Hedy on a second device.

Why Phone Calls Can’t Be Recorded

Hedy captures audio from your iPhone’s microphone — the same way Voice Memos and most other recording apps do. When a phone call (or FaceTime audio call) starts, iOS reserves the audio system for the call itself and interrupts every other app’s audio session. Hedy doesn’t have a separate path that captures audio from the call stream, so when the interruption hits, recording stops.

This applies to:

Regular cellular phone calls
FaceTime audio and video calls
WhatsApp, Signal, Messenger, and other VoIP calls
Siri activations
Alarms ringing during a session

How to Record a Phone Conversation

The reliable approach is to use two devices:

Put the phone call on speakerphone so the other person’s voice plays through the iPhone’s speaker.
Run Hedy on a second device — another iPhone, an iPad, or a Mac — placed near the speakerphone.
Start a Hedy session on the second device before answering the call (or as soon as you can after picking up).

The second device captures both your voice and the other person’s voice through its microphone. Quality depends on how loud the speaker is and how quiet the room is.

Tip: A Mac with Hedy installed is often the easiest setup if you’re at your desk — start the session before placing the call. For mobile situations, a second iPhone or iPad works well.

What Happens If a Call Comes In Mid-Session

If you’re already in a Hedy session on your iPhone and a phone call interrupts, what happens depends on which recording engine is active:

In most cases, Hedy attempts to recover the audio capture automatically once the interruption clears. You won’t need to do anything — recording resumes on its own once the call ends.
With the experimental Parakeet engine (iPhone and Mac, currently in beta), Hedy pauses the session and waits for you to tap Resume after the call ends. This is intentional — the Parakeet engine doesn’t auto-resume from interruptions.
If automatic recovery fails, you’ll see “Audio Recovery Failed” with the message “There was an issue recovering audio after an interruption. Please stop and restart your session to continue recording.”

Audio captured before the call interruption is preserved — only the portion during the call is missing.

Why You Can’t Just Use a Bluetooth Headset

Routing the call through AirPods or another Bluetooth headset doesn’t change the underlying behavior — iOS still treats the call as an audio session interruption regardless of where the audio is being played. Hedy can’t capture the audio stream of the call itself, only what its microphone picks up from the air.

Hedy System Requirements — confirm your iPhone runs iOS 17 or later
Hedy Background Operation Optimization Guide — keep long sessions running smoothly
Transcription Stopped Mid-Session — for cutoffs caused by something other than an incoming call

Still having trouble? Contact us through the chat widget and let us know the scenario you’re trying to record — we can usually suggest a setup that works.