Can you record a FaceTime call?

Not with FaceTime itself — it has never had a record feature on the Mac or the iPhone. On a Mac, a FaceTime call can be recorded by capturing the microphone and the system audio together, which is what RecordCue does: one local file with both voices, and the screen too if you want the video.

Why is my FaceTime screen recording silent?

The built-in macOS screen recorder can capture the picture of a FaceTime call, but the call audio is the problem: your microphone is easy, and the other person is system audio, which most recorders never capture. An app that taps system audio through the macOS screen-capture interface gets both voices without a virtual audio driver.

Record a FaceTime call with both sides of the audio

The picture is easy. The other voice is the part everyone gets wrong.

FaceTime will not do it for you

FaceTime has never had a record button — not on the Mac, not on the iPhone. What people try instead is the built-in screen recorder, and discover the classic failure afterwards: a perfect picture of the call with half the conversation missing, because the recording carried the microphone but not the caller. Your voice is an input device; theirs is audio the Mac is playing, and the built-in recorder does not capture that.

How to get both voices

macOS exposes what another app is playing through one interface — the screen capture API — and that is what RecordCue uses. No BlackHole, no Audio MIDI Setup, no rerouting:

Install RecordCue and leave it in the menu bar. FaceTime is one of the services it knows out of the box.
Take the call. When FaceTime opens the microphone, a cue appears: FaceTime call — audio calls, video calls and Group FaceTime all count, because they all open the mic.
Press Audio only for a call you want as sound, or A window to record the FaceTime window with the call audio in it. Both voices are mixed into the file as it records; headphones change nothing.

When everyone hangs up, RecordCue notices and asks whether to stop. The file is ordinary — .m4a for audio, .mp4 for video — in ~/Movies/RecordCue/FaceTime/, and can be transcribed on the device with each passage marked as you, them, or both. There is no account, no server, and nothing the people on the call can see: no bot, no banner, which is exactly why the next section matters.

Tell people first

FaceTime calls are personal calls. In many places you must tell the other people you are recording; in some you need their agreement first. RecordCue cannot know where everyone is and does not decide this for you — the FAQ has the longer answer. Say it at the start of the call.

RecordCue is free on the Mac App Store (macOS 13+, Apple silicon) — ten minutes per recording after a 14-day unlimited trial, one purchase removes the limit. Related: recording a WhatsApp call, recording a Slack huddle, and how to never forget to record.