Can you record a WhatsApp call?

WhatsApp itself has no call recording on any platform. What works: take the call in WhatsApp on a Mac, and record it there with an app that captures the microphone and system audio together — RecordCue does this locally, producing one file with both sides, with nothing uploaded anywhere.

Does recording a WhatsApp call break its end-to-end encryption?

No — encryption protects the call in transit. On your own Mac the audio has already been decrypted so you can hear it, and a local recording captures that audio on your machine. Nothing is intercepted and nothing leaves the Mac. Whether you should record, and whether you must tell the other person, is a separate question — in many places you must.

Record a WhatsApp call on your Mac

Voice or video, both sides in one file — locally.

WhatsApp will not do it for you

There is no record button in WhatsApp — not on the phone, not on the desktop app — and there will not be one soon: recording sits awkwardly with the app's privacy promises. The advice that circulates instead is grim: a second phone on the table, or a speakerphone and a voice memo app, with everyone sounding like they are underwater.

The workable version is simpler: take the call on your Mac. WhatsApp's desktop app carries voice and video calls, and on a Mac the call becomes something you can record properly — your microphone is an input, and the other person is audio your Mac is playing. Capture both, and you have the whole conversation.

The part QuickTime gets wrong

QuickTime and most recorder apps capture input devices only, so they hear you and not the caller. The other side of a WhatsApp call reaches you as system audio, which macOS exposes through exactly one interface — the screen capture API. That is the route RecordCue uses (and why an audio recording asks for Screen Recording permission), so there is no BlackHole driver to install and no output rerouting to remember to undo.

The three steps

Install RecordCue. WhatsApp's desktop app is one of the services it recognises out of the box — both the App Store and the direct download versions.
Answer or start the call in WhatsApp on the Mac. The moment WhatsApp opens the microphone, a cue appears: WhatsApp call.
Press Audio only — or a screen mode if you want the video call as video. Your voice and theirs are mixed into one ordinary .m4a as it records. Headphones change nothing.

When the call ends, RecordCue asks whether to stop. The file is in ~/Movies/RecordCue/WhatsApp/, named by date, and can be transcribed on the device — no audio ever leaves the Mac, there is no account, and nothing is visible to the person you called.

Ask first

A WhatsApp call is usually a personal call, which makes this matter more, not less: in many places you must tell the other person you are recording, and in some you need their agreement. The FAQ has the longer answer. Ask — it is also what keeps the recording worth having.

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 FaceTime call, and how to never forget to record.