Dreams and maybe some comments on the times...: Call Recording Setup on a Samsung Galaxy s21 (updated as of 2023-12-02)

Context:

- I recently got a Samsung galaxy s21.

- I wanted to install a call recorder on the phone. I obtained the most recently updated version of "call recorder" from Fdroid that was maintained by the user axet, and it did not work out of the box. (I chose the Fdroid "app store" option because i do not trust the apps on google play that claim to do this and have really negative reviews)

Troubleshooting:

Using Fdroid's source code links, I navigated to "docs" and found that there were 4 troubleshooting steps. I was able to get mine working without voiding Knox (magicx or adb):

- I found that when I chose my recording source as "voice recognition" using the system settings "accessibility voice recognition" allowed it to record my voice (outgoing audio) only. - I found that using the system settings "separate app sound" and specifically mapped the "phone" app to the "phone" output allowed it to record both incoming and outgoing audio

- the recording location is in a system controlled location so if you want to play from any other app, you will need to change the recording location

- there is a setting to change the "gain" on recording to up to 400%.

- I also cycled between the settings internal to the app from "encoder > OGG" to "encoder > ACC" then back to "encoder > OGG" at one point, but i don't think it changed anything.

- I had to allow restricted app settings for call recorder from the "accessibility> installed apps"

Had to click the three dots at the top to see the setting to toggle.

Now there is one installed accessibility app in use.

- There were a few other settings like "disable battery optimization" and all sorts of permissions that I had to approve, but because this is FOSS and it does not need an internet connection, I felt like I was pretty safe in allowing this.

I hope this helps someone out there.

Screenshots of the final settings:

Within the app call recording is checked:

Within the app voice recognition as a source is enabled:

Within system settings separate app sound from phone to phone is on (note that using a Bluetooth headset may throw this off and the accessibility settings may need to be mapped differently too in that use case)