Apple to soon let you record calls, but only after informing participants

In a barrage of new artificial intelligence (AI) announcements that Apple made on Monday, one stood out. In its iOS 18 software version, the tech giant will now let you record and transcribe the conversation. But it will automatically notify all participants in the call that they're being recorded.

How does it work?

During its demonstration at the developers' event, Apple showed a new recording option on its Phone app, which shows a soundwave of recording the person's voice, along with a time stamp. After the call is over, the call is transcribed in the Notes app. Users can also ask the phone to create a summary of the call using the new Apple Intelligence system.


Features

Audio transcription is only available in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Portuguese.

This is being celebrated by journalists and content creators online as a big part of their jobs is transcribing interviews. They use services like TapeACall and Otter, but they are subscription-based services, and Apple's tool will be free of cost. However, some have questioned whether the quality of transcribing can match up to these companies.

When Apple's event concluded, there was a flood of posts on X and other social media, listing apps that will soon lose business due to the tech giant's new features. Many users posted the same about Otter and TapeACall when the call record feature was announced.

Apple Intelligence in everything

Apple on Monday said it will integrate some OpenAI models into its products for features like text generation. It demonstrated other generative features beyond the OpenAI integration and said it plans to announce support for other AI models in the future.

The tech titan also said it will herald a new era for its voice assistant Siri. New features will include the ability to take actions within apps on your behalf and better natural language processing.

CEO Tim Cook emphasised that all new features being introduced will have privacy at their core.