Configuring Numbers: Activating call recording

Aircall allows you to activate or deactivate call recording on each phone number, and to control how recording behaves when calls are transferred. Recordings support quality monitoring, agent coaching, and compliance. You can enable recording for inbound calls, outbound calls, or both, and configure whether recording should automatically stop when a call is transferred to a phone number.

Only Aircall users with Admin permissions can activate call recording.

Important: Before enabling call recording, make sure that it is legal in your country or region.

How to activate call recording

Steps:

1. Go to Aircall Dashboard > Numbers
2. Select the number you want to configure.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll down to the Call recording section. 
5. Under Incoming calls and Outgoing calls, toggle on the options you want to apply:
   • Start recording automatically: recording begins as soon as the call connects.
   • Allow the agent to start & pause recording: agents can manually control recording from the Aircall app.
   • Start automatically with agent control: the call starts and the recording starts automatically, but the agent still has access to the pause/resume REC button
6. To stop recording automatically on transfers, scroll to the Transfers section and enable Automatically stop recording on transfers to phone numbers.

Once activated, call recording applies to all users and teams assigned to that number. Users can access recordings for their own calls directly within Aircall Workspace.

Stopping recording on transfers to phone numbers

The Automatically stop recording on transfers to phone numbers setting gives you per-number control over recording behavior when a call is transferred. When enabled, recordings automatically stop when calls are transferred or routed to a phone number, whether external or internal. No agent action is required.

By default, call recording follows the original Aircall number, not the call segment, call flow, or destination, so a forwarded or transferred call keeps recording unless you configure otherwise.

This setting covers the following scenarios:

• Cold transfers to a number: an agent transfers the call directly to a phone number. Recording stops at the moment of transfer.
• IVR routing to a phone number: your call flow routes the call to a phone number via a Ring to External step. Recording stops when routing is initiated.

What this setting does not cover

• Warm transfers: the caller is not on the line while the agent speaks with the transfer target, so there is no compliance risk. Recording continues.
• Conferences: adding an external participant to a conference is not affected. Recording continues.

If a cold transfer fails

If a cold transfer to an external number fails (for example, the destination is unavailable) and the call returns to the agent, recording remains paused. The agent can manually resume recording from the Aircall app.

Other ways to manage recording on transfers

If the automatic setting above doesn't fit your use case, these alternatives are also available.

• Pause recording manually

If Allow the agent to start & pause recording or Start automatically with agent control is enabled for the number, agents can manually pause call recording before forwarding or cold transferring a call, if that specific segment shouldn't be recorded.

• Use warm transfers

During a warm transfer, the agent who receives the call has control over the recording. That agent can pause or resume it as needed. Since the caller isn't on the line while the two agents speak, recording continues by default, use a warm transfer instead of a cold one if you want that control to stay with a human rather than relying on an automatic setting.

• Disable recording for specific numbers

If calls forwarded from a particular number should never be recorded, you can turn off recording for that number entirely, see "How to activate call recording" above.

Playing a call recording announcement before outbound calls

To meet compliance requirements, you can enable a pre-call announcement that plays before the recipient answers. This message is played before recording starts. The agent hears the message but is muted until it finishes.

Note: The announcement starts playing immediately after the call is answered, regardless of whether it is answered by a person or by an automated step such as a welcome message or IVR menu. If the number you are calling has any of these setups in place, the announcement may have already finished by the time a person is engaged in the call, meaning they may not hear it at all, or may only hear part of it.

Steps:

1. Go to the number’s Settings tab.
2. In the Call Recording section, locate the Outgoing calls settings.
3. Toggle Play call recording announcement before connecting.
4. Choose one of the following message types:
   • Text-to-speech
   • Custom file
   • Recording

Recording rules and limitations

When using call recording in Aircall, certain limitations apply. Here are the rules that determine whether a call recording is saved and how it is stored.

Recording conditions

Recordings will not be saved in the following cases:

• The recording is longer than 4 hours
• The recording is shorter than 5 seconds
• The call has fewer than 2 participants
• The call is an internal Aircall call

Number assignment for recordings

• Recordings are assigned to the Aircall number that the call was made or received on.
• If a call is received on a number using a call flow where recording is not enabled and is then redirected by an IVR widget to another number with recording enabled, the call will be recorded.
• In this case, the recording will be stored under the second number where recording is active. Learn more about the Call flow widgets: The IVR widget and voicemail notifications.

FAQs

What happens to recording if a cold transfer fails and the call returns to the agent?

Recording remains paused. The agent can manually resume recording from the Aircall app. Recording does not restart automatically on rollback.

Does this setting apply to both external and internal number transfers?

Yes. When enabled, recording stops for all transfers and routing to phone numbers, whether the destination is an external number or an internal Aircall number dialled directly. Transfers to specific users or teams are not affected.