How to record a phone screen: four methods, consent and storage

To record a phone screen, pick one of four methods: your mobile phone's built-in call recorder, your company's business phone system, taking the call on your computer and capturing the computer's audio, or a conference line that records. Whichever you use, tell the candidate at the start and get a clear yes before you begin, then store the file in one approved place with a delete date.

This guide compares the four methods, covers what is different about consent on a phone call, shows how to test your audio so both voices are captured, and ends with a checklist you can run before every screen.

The four methods compared

A fifth option, putting the call on speaker and recording it with a second device, gives poor audio, leaves a candidate recording on a device nobody manages, and still needs consent. Treat it as a last resort, not a method.

Recording on your mobile phone

iPhone

Apple added call recording to the Phone app starting in iOS 18, and to the Phone app on Mac starting in macOS Tahoe. According to Apple's support guide, "both participants receive an audio notice that the call is being recorded," the notice replays periodically during the call, recordings are saved to a Call Recordings folder in the Notes app, and the feature "is available only in select regions and languages." Apple's own guidance is to make sure the other participant gives explicit consent before you start.

Android (Google Phone app)

Google's Phone app help page says non-Pixel devices need Android 9 or later and Pixel devices need a Pixel 6 or later on Android 14 or later, and that you must be in a country or region where call recording is supported. When you start recording, "both parties are notified with a disclosure that the call is being recorded," and recordings are stored on the device rather than backed up off it. Other Android phones use their manufacturer's dialer, so check that dialer's documentation.

Watch-outs for mobile recording

• Personal device, company data. A candidate recording on your own phone is personal data your employer is responsible for, sitting outside its systems. Move it to the approved location the same day and delete it from the phone.
• Syncing. Check whether the app that holds recordings syncs to a personal cloud account. If it does, the recording has been copied somewhere your retention policy does not reach.
• No notes. A recording is not a write-up. You still have to listen back or transcribe to use it in a submittal.

Recording through a business phone system

Most business phone systems offer recording as a setting your administrator controls: on for everyone, on for certain users, or on demand during a call. Two examples from vendor documentation, as of September 2026:

• Zoom Phone. Admins manage ad hoc recording by account, group, site or user. The ad hoc recording settings page shows a checkbox to "play a disclaimer prompt warning call participants that the call will be recorded," which means the prompt can also be off. It says call recordings are saved to the cloud.
• Google Voice (Google Workspace). Google's admin page on recorded calls describes automatic and on-demand recording, controlled for inbound, outbound or all calls depending on the Voice edition, and says "when recording starts, a message alerts everyone on the call that they're being recorded."

Before you rely on your company system, ask your admin three questions: is an announcement played, and can you hear it; who can access recordings (often admins and managers, not only you); and how long recordings are kept by default. An announcement you have never heard is not one you can describe to a candidate.

Capturing the call on your computer

If the call runs on your computer, anything that can capture the computer's audio can record or transcribe it. There are two common ways to get a phone call onto a computer:

• A softphone, meaning your business phone system's desktop app, so the call is already on the computer.
• Linking your mobile phone. Microsoft's Phone Link lets you make and take calls from a Windows PC with an Android phone or iPhone over Bluetooth, and the Phone app on Mac does the same for iPhone.

Once the call is on the computer, a capture tool needs both sides: your microphone and the candidate's voice coming through the computer's output. Tools that capture only the microphone record half the conversation, which is the most common failure with this method. This is also the approach Interview Signal uses: it captures audio on your own computer, so no bot joins and it works for phone screens that run through the computer, producing a live transcript rather than an audio file.

Computer capture usually plays no announcement to the candidate, so the notice is entirely yours to give. That is not a drawback if you ask every time, which you should be doing anyway.

Consent on a phone call is different

The legal question is the same as on a video call. The practical position is not, for three reasons.

1. There is no visual indicator. On a video platform, a recording badge is on screen. On a phone call, the candidate knows only what they hear. Your spoken notice is the whole notice.
2. You usually do not know where the candidate is. Mobile numbers move with people, so an area code is not a location. A candidate with a Texas number may be sitting in California. Where a state requires every party's consent, that state's rule may matter even if you are somewhere else. The detail is in recording calls across state lines, and the state-by-state statutes are in two-party consent states.
3. An automated announcement is not a question. A phone that says "this call is being recorded" informs the candidate. It does not ask them anything, and a candidate who stays on the line may not have realized they could object. Ask, and wait for a clear yes.

The practical rule for agency recruiters is simple: give notice on every screen, in every state, and use the strict wording (the notice and the candidate's yes captured at the start) when you cannot confirm the candidate's location. Copy-ready wording, including a phone-specific version, is in the interview recording consent script. Put a line in the calendar invite as well, so the question on the call is not a surprise.

One federal point for context: the federal wiretap statute allows a person who is a party to a call to record it, or a person where one party has consented, unless it is done for a criminal or tortious purpose (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)). State law can be stricter, which is why the federal rule is where the analysis starts, not where it ends.

Audio setup that captures both voices

A recording you cannot understand is worse than none: it creates a record you cannot use. Run this test once per setup, with a colleague, before you use it on a candidate.

1. Call a colleague using exactly the method you will use: same phone or softphone, same headset, same room.
2. Talk for two minutes, including a stretch where you both speak at once, and one where your colleague speaks quietly.
3. Play it back or read the transcript. Check that both voices are present and that names, numbers and job titles came through.
4. Switch audio devices mid-call (for example, turn on a Bluetooth headset) and check again. Changing devices during a call is a common way to lose one side.
5. Check where the file went and who can open it.

Setup tips

• Use a wired or reliable wireless headset rather than speakerphone. Speakerphone picks up the room and echoes the candidate back into the recording.
• Close other apps that use the microphone, such as a video call left open in another window.
• Ask a candidate on a bad line to call back rather than struggling through. The candidate saves effort, and you get usable notes.
• If you transcribe live, glance at the transcript in the first minute. Catching a problem at minute one beats discovering it at minute thirty.

After the call: storage, retention and access

Recording is the easy part. Most of the risk sits in what happens to the file afterwards. Decide these four things once, write them down, and apply them to every screen.

Phone screen recording policy (fill in and share with your team)

Approved location:   [ATS candidate record / restricted drive path]
File name:           [YYYY-MM-DD]_[candidate surname]_[role]_[screen]
Who can access:      [recruiter who ran the screen, their manager, ...]
Shared with client:  [never / transcript excerpts only / with candidate's agreement]
Retention:           [e.g. 90 days after the role closes, unless a legal hold applies]
Deleted from:        [phone, downloads folder, email attachments] same day
Candidate declined:  [no capture; handwritten notes only; log "declined"]

Three points to settle with whoever owns compliance at your organization:

• Records you make may have to be kept. For example, the EEOC's recordkeeping rule requires covered employers to preserve records "having to do with hiring" for one year from the date the record was made or the personnel action, whichever is later, and longer once a discrimination charge is filed (29 CFR § 1602.14). Ask whether your recordings and transcripts are treated as such records. A short retention period in your policy has to fit around rules like this one.
• Candidates in the UK and EU can ask for their data. If you screen internationally, know where recordings are so you can find them. See recording interviews under UK GDPR.
• Clients should not receive raw recordings by default. A submittal built from your notes shares what the client needs. A recording shares everything the candidate said, including what they told you in confidence about their current employer.

Pre-call checklist

Run through this before each screen. It takes under a minute once the setup is tested.

• The calendar invite or confirmation email mentions that you record or transcribe screens.
• Your recording method was tested with a colleague and captures both voices.
• You know whether your phone or phone system will play its own announcement.
• The consent wording is in front of you, and you will say it before the first question.
• You will ask where the candidate is if it affects which wording you use.
• You know how to pause or stop capture in one action if the candidate says no or asks you to.
• You know where the file or transcript will be saved, and you will move it there the same day.
• The delete date is set or calendared.