Recording a phone call in France: is it legal?

Telling people is enough, as long as you do it first

The law does not require written consent. The same Article 226-1 presumes consent when the recording happens "in the sight and knowledge" of the person, who did not object while able to. In practice one sentence at the start of the call is enough: "I'm recording so I don't miss anything, is that all right with you?"

Two conditions separate real notice from an empty formality:

• Before, not after. Announcing the recording as you hang up fixes nothing. Whatever was said before the announcement was still captured without consent.
• A real choice. The other person must be able to say no. If they do, you stop recording and take notes.

How to record a call on iPhone and Android

Both systems can now do it without a third-party app. And both tell the other person for you.

On iPhone

1. Check that the iPhone runs iOS 18.1 or later.
2. During the call, tap the record button at the top left of the call screen.
3. An audible message announces the recording to everyone on the call, then the timer starts.
4. Tap the button again, or hang up, to stop. The recording is saved in the Notes app, in a folder for calls.

On Android

1. In Google's Phone app, make or take the call.
2. Tap "Record" on the in-call screen. The first time, the app reminds you that the law may require the other person's consent.
3. Both people hear an announcement at the start, and often at the end.
4. The recording shows up in your call history, under that call.

Manufacturers' own phone apps, Samsung's or Xiaomi's for instance, offer their own button, with or without an announcement depending on the model and the country. When your phone does not tell the other person, you have to, out loud, before you start recording.

These announcements protect you

Apple and Google made the same choice: make recording audible so that it is fair by construction. Third-party apps that promise "discreet" recording are selling exactly what the law forbids. Google has restricted how they work on Android since 2022.

The same rule applies away from the phone. A recorder next to a call on speaker, a video call recorded on Teams or Zoom: the tool changes, the duty to tell people does not.

What the law forbids beyond the recording itself

Recording is only the first act. Article 226-2 applies the same penalties to keeping, sharing or using a recording made without consent. Forwarding to a colleague the audio of a call captured without the other party's knowledge is a second offence, separate from the first.

"But it was a work conversation"

The text covers words spoken "in a private capacity". Judges assess that case by case, and a strictly professional exchange can sometimes fall outside it. It is not a bet worth making: the line between professional and personal is crossed in one sentence, and the court draws it afterwards.

A hidden recording can be evidence, and cost you a criminal case

Since the plenary ruling of the Cour de cassation of 22 December 2023, a recording made without the other party's knowledge is no longer automatically excluded from a civil case. The judge may admit it if it is essential to the right to evidence and the intrusion is proportionate. Being admissible in civil court erases nothing on the criminal side. We cover this for meetings in Recording a work meeting in France: what the law says.

At work: calls recorded by the employer

A customer service team that records its calls falls under a more precise framework, set by the CNIL, the French data protection authority. Recording is allowed to train staff, assess service quality or keep proof of a transaction, on four conditions:

• Callers are told at the start of the call, and can object.
• Employees are told the purpose, the retention period and their rights.
• Permanent, systematic listening or recording is forbidden, except where a specific profession is legally required to do it.
• Retention is limited: six months at most for recordings, one year for the analysis documents drawn from them.

Those six months say it all: a recording exists to produce something else, a note, an assessment, a proof. Once that thing exists, the audio has no reason to.

Where the file goes

A call recording holds at least two voices, so two identifiable people. The moment you transcribe it with an online service, that service processes their data. If it hosts outside the European Union, the other person's voice goes there too, without their choosing. You told them you were recording. Did you tell them where the recording would be stored?

Key takeaways

• Recording a call is legal if the other person is told beforehand and can refuse.
• Taking part in the call does not entitle you to record it secretly (Art. 226-1).
• Keeping or sharing a recording made without consent is a second offence (Art. 226-2).
• The audible notices on iPhone and Android are not a nuisance: they are your compliance.
• At work, the CNIL caps retention of recorded calls at six months.

Sources: Articles 226-1 and 226-2 of the French Criminal Code; Law no. 2020-936 of 30 July 2020; Cour de cassation, plenary assembly, 22 December 2023, no. 21-11.330; CNIL, "Listening to and recording calls in the workplace".