iPhone Call Recorder Looks Like Police Gadgetry from the ‘60s

DIY gadget hacker Adam Byers has created a custom iPhone Call Recorder with the help of which one can record both ends of a conversation, as well as start recording the conversation midstream. The solution is hardware-based, not an app.

“I’ve wanted a way to record phone calls to and from my iPhone since I’ve had it but hadn’t really looked into solutions until a couple of weeks ago,” Byers writes on his site. “[...] I had a few criteria that I wanted to meet:

- Portable as possible.
- Record both sides of the conversation.
- The ability to start recording the conversation midstream.
- As little indication that the call was being recorded as possible.”

Byers then started looking at the pinout of the iPhone headphone jack. He found it was a TRRS (Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve) jack.

“I stumbled across this post that gave instructions on how to wire a breakout cable so that you could use your own headphones and mic with the iPhone.” He came up with a schematic, but it didn’t turn into the perfect recording solution.

“[...] Using simple mixer did not do enough to keep the headphone and mic separated, it helped but it wasn’t enough,” he continues. “Finally, by using strategically placed capacitors I was able to virtually eliminate the ‘talk back’ problem.”

Long story short, Byers ended up creating the device you see pictured above (click to enlarge). “It’s very likely that this is not the best, or the only way to accomplish recording phone calls on the iPhone, but it does work. If anyone has any other solutions I’d love to hear about it,” he concludes.

Byers has also posted a bit of a disclaimer signaling there are laws regarding the recording of phone calls in some states, while federal laws may apply as well. Therefore, it may not be such a good idea to craft your own iPhone Call Recorder and use it for the purpose of (what else?) recording conversations with others.