Mike Peterson
Apple's upcoming iOS 14 may gain native support for recording phone and audio FaceTime calls, according to a highly questionable image allegedly scraped from an early version of the software update.
An image of a settings pane for the supposed iOS 14 feature was apparently obtained by the jailbreaking community through a leak and sent to Chinese-language site ITHome.
According to the image, flipping a switch under the new settings pane will enable automatic recording of "all incoming and outgoing calls on this device." The settings panel also notes that users should notify all parties on the audio call before they begin recordings. That's likely because it's illegal in some regions to record another person without consent.
AppleInsider is unable to verify the authenticity of the image, though there are some aspects of the screenshot that suggest it may have been faked. The letter "t" in "FaceTime," for example, isn't capitalized as it should be. Further, the text in the settings panel is inconsistent and swaps between calling the feature "recording" and "audio logging." Apple, on the other hand, is very particular in naming references to new features in system text.
The highly questionable screenshot arrives after an early engineering version of iOS 14, apparently sourced from Apple's supply chain, began circulating the jailbreaking community in February.
That leaked version of iOS 14 has revealed a number of new features, including an augmented reality commerce app, a built-in translator for Safari and details about a new "CarKey" API.
Apple is widely expected to debut iOS 14 at its virtual WWDC 2020 conference, which kicks off on June 22.
Update: In a Twitter comment, leaker @choco_bit said that the settings page was pulled from an internal iOS build not meant for production, and added a few additional details about the leaked internal builds.
An example pulled from one of these amalgamated builds pic.twitter.com/PAE9K5FdSA
— Fudge (@choco_bit) June 10, 2020
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
10 Comments
What’s desperately needed is native voicemail recording and management. C’mon Tim Cook ... not the crappy limited options dictated by the telcos.
Really doubt this would happen from Apple due to the potential lawsuits and risk of regulation from the Feds.
I doubt this is a feature that will make it to actual user-facing stage anytime soon. First there is the practical ramifications (audio recordings of every call would fill up your local or iCloud storage very quickly), and then there are the legal ramifications (laws vary quite significantly from one state/province/country to another, and indeed this feature might well inspire new legislation).
It would certainly make journalists' lives a lot easier, but what would really be a cool feature would be an option to transcribe audio calls (preferably on-device).
Apart from the legal ramifications, Apple's own privacy stand makes it unlikely that they will allow such a feature, without some mechanism to get the consent of the other party.
I could see Apple offering this as an option with a muted beep every five seconds or so. This is how call centers can get away with not indicating that the call is being recorded because the beeps signify this.