How to record a call using a cell phone?

April 10, 2009 4:40 PM

How do I record a call on a cell phone - or what are my options for recording a conversation in the situation I'm dealing with?

I need to record an extended phone conversation so I can transcribe it for work purposes.

I had planned to have the client, who's in England, call me on Skype. I'd just put my hand-held Best Buy voice recorder by the speaker the way I usually do.

But the client has said we can't use Skype, as he's found the connection from England is consistently horrible everywhere in the States he's tried. He's certain our connection would also be bad.

I have no land line, so that leaves my cell phone. And my cell won't do, as I there's no way I know to use a hand-held recorder with it.

I could set up the call from a friend's house & use their land line, but dammit, is there any way to do it from my own land-lineless place?

I am totally broke this month, so I have no budget for any solution I'd need to pay for.

BTW I have a Motorola Razr a few years old & Bluetooth setup. Is there some kind of speaker functionality with this that I don't know about?

Suggestions?

posted by Jennifer S. to technology (14 comments total)

Should just be able to use speakerphone. This link might help.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 4:48 PM on April 10

Just hold the voice record button, it'll beep to tell you and the person on the other line that you're recording. I'm able to do this [voice recording] on my RIZR, and it's similar to RAZR.
posted by QueenHawkeye at 4:50 PM on April 10

You can use your heldheld recorder and a cell phone if your get the Olympus TP-7. It's just a microphone that fits in your ear. I have one and have conducted tons of interviews with it. It's a bit of a drag that you can't switch ears during the call, but it works really well.
posted by neroli at 5:24 PM on April 10 [1 favorite]

hmm... I think grand central has that functionality, where they call your GC number and you can press 4 to record... but it's sadly not open to the public currently.. A similar service may work though.
posted by gryftir at 6:08 PM on April 10

If you've got a Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) account or know someone whose account you can use, they offer call recording. They're not allowing invitations right now, but it's pretty easy to forward calls to a different number for a short period of time.

If you need to do this and don't know anyone who can help you, mefimail me - I might be able to let you use my account if you can tell me a specific day and time for the phone call.
posted by katemonster at 6:14 PM on April 10

The RAZR, like pretty much every other phone, has a headset jack. There are hundreds of devices out there that will let you record audio from a cell phone's headset jack.

Am I missing something here?
posted by dmd at 7:35 PM on April 10

I do this all the time. RadioShack sells a little battery-operated device that plugs into the headset jack on your phone and then into the audio-in jack on your recorder. You plug a (wired) headset into the device, turn everything on, and go. The whole setup costs around $30.
posted by opek at 8:32 PM on April 10

If it doesn't have to be your cell phone, we use a service called Free Conference Call
http://www.freeconferencecall.com/

They offer free call recording. You and the client both dial in to the same conference line. It records it for you. All free.

I have never used this internationally but it's a US call in number, can't imagine it'll be a problem.

Hope this helps.
posted by mazienh at 9:29 PM on April 10

Use skype anyway - but don't let them know it. Buy a skype landline number and have them ring that.

Ta da.
posted by Xhris at 9:46 PM on April 10

I 2nd xhris' suggestion.
posted by allthewhile at 11:48 PM on April 10

3rding Xhris's suggestion. I use SkypeOut all the time to call landlines around North America and it usually has better call quality than my cell phone.
posted by barc0001 at 3:24 AM on April 11

OK, will look into the speakerphone again; I had fiddled with my phone already and could not get anything promising happening.

Katemonster, thank you! What a generous and helpful offer.

DMD, you're missing that it's the middle of a recession, I am a college student, I just had a $1500 vet bill, and my budget for new hardware this month is $0.00. If I had the $$ to go out and get a headset, I would.

Xhris, you may be on to something. I have a Skype # already and might ask my client to just give it a try from England. He's not being unreasonable, just sensible in the face of past failure.
posted by Jennifer S. at 7:52 AM on April 11

Spoofcard is what you are looking for. It's a service made for people to make anonymous phone calls under 'forged' called IDs, ie you can make your number show up as someone else's. It has practical purposes (and pranktical), but one of it's benefits is that it records all calls made through its service.

It's a legit company, and you can make a call for free to try it out. Maybe make the free call your official one?
posted by bradly at 10:29 AM on April 11

If he goes ahead and uses Skype anyway and the connection is bad, that will look really bad. I'd second the free conference call service.

Also, if you had the money, (just for reference for future people searching) this "Cell Tap" device works great. (http://jkaudio.com/celltap.htm) It has a headphone jack that plugs into your phone which you can then plug a headset into.

Does this person know that you're going to be recording the call?
posted by reddot at 7:52 AM on April 12