Pixel 9a and Below: Phone by Google Call Recording Finally Unlocked in Japan

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📝 Key Points of This Article

• It appears that “Call Recording” in the “Phone by Google” app has finally been released in Japan.
• To use “Call Recording,” simply turn it on in the settings.
• By enabling the “Always record calls from numbers not in your contacts” setting, calls with phone numbers literally not saved in your “Contacts” will be recorded automatically.

The “Call Recording” feature, which is implemented in the “Phone by Google” app (the default phone app for Google Pixel devices) but had been blocked in Japan, is now available.

It appears that “Call Recording” in the “Phone by Google” app has finally been released in Japan. I confirmed the availability of “Call Recording” on my “Pixel 9a” using a Rakuten Mobile (Rakuten Saikyo Plan) SIM.

“Call Recording” in the “Phone by Google” app is a feature that allows you to literally record call contents automatically or manually. Globally, its rollout for Android devices running Android 9 or later began around the summer of 2021.

While it was temporarily released in Japan as well, it had been blocked and unavailable for quite some time.

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However, around September 2025, the “Use the Phone app to record calls” page on the official Google “Phone App Help” site was updated, stating that “Call Recording” would be supported on Google Pixel 6 and later devices running Android 14 or later. Even then, “Call Recording” remained unavailable for several months, but as shown in the images above, it has now finally been released in Japan.

To use “Call Recording,” simply turn on “Record calls” in the settings. You will then be able to start recording from the “⋮ (vertical ellipsis)” menu during a call. Additionally, if you enable the “Always record calls from numbers not in your contacts” setting, calls with phone numbers not saved in your “Contacts” will automatically be recorded.

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Note that for Google Pixel devices from the “Pixel 9” series onwards (excluding the “Pixel 9a”), the “Call Notes” feature—which includes AI summarization powered by Google’s “Gemini Nano” AI model—has been rolling out in Japan since around October 2025. On the other hand, for Google Pixel devices older than or including the “Pixel 9a,” the feature is being rolled out as “Call Recording.”

“Phone by Google” App Link