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This documentation is curated by 2600Hz as part of the KAZOO open source project. Join our community forums here for peer support. Only features in the docs.2600hz.com/supported space are included as part of our 2600Hz Support Services plan.

Call Recording#

About Call Recording#

Setting up call recording allows you to have a permanent record of a conversation that took place.

Configuring Call Recording#

Call recording can be enabled in a number of ways:

  • At the account level
  • At the user level
  • At the device level
  • Explicitly as a callflow action

Call recording also requires you to have a web server capable of receiving an HTTP PUT request with the contents of the recording. You are then free to save the recording in a way that meets your needs.

Account, User, or Device#

Configuring recording at the account level means all calls, inbound and outbound, to this account will start the call recording system.

Configuring recording at the user level starts recording for any calls to/from a device owned by that user.

Configuring recording at the device level starts recording for any calls to/from the device.

Precedence of settings#

Precedence of settings is: Device > User

If a user turns on call recording but a device has explicitly disabled it, the device will not be recorded when the user makes a call with it. If the device's settings are left undefined, the user's settings will be applied.

The account's settings are considered independently of the endpoint's. So a user who has disabled recording, within an account that has enabled recording, will still have calls recorded according to the account's settings.

Recording settings matrix#

Account Settings#

When an onnet device makes an internal call:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Account -> Inbound -> Onnet onnet onnet yes
Account -> Inbound -> Offnet onnet onnet no
Account -> Outbound -> Onnet onnet onnet yes (if inbound -> onnet isn't configured)
Account -> Outbound -> Offnet onnet onnet no

When an onnet device makes an external call:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Account -> Inbound -> Onnet onnet offnet yes
Account -> Inbound -> Offnet onnet offnet no
Account -> Outbound -> Onnet onnet offnet no
Account -> Outbound -> Offnet onnet offnet yes (if inbound -> onnet isn't configured)

When an offnet device makes an internal call:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Account -> Inbound -> Onnet offnet onnet no
Account -> Inbound -> Offnet offnet onnet yes
Account -> Outbound -> Onnet offnet onnet yes (if inbound-offnet isn't configured)
Account -> Outbound -> Offnet offnet onnet no
Endpoint Settings#

When an onnet device makes an internal call:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Onnet onnet onnet yes¹
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Offnet onnet onnet no
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Onnet onnet onnet yes
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Offnet onnet onnet no

When an onnet device makes an external call:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Onnet onnet offnet no
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Offnet onnet offnet no
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Onnet onnet offnet no
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Offnet onnet offnet yes

When an offnet endpoint makes a call to an onnet device:

Setting Source Destination Recording Started
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Onnet offnet onnet no
Endpoint -> Inbound -> Offnet offnet onnet yes
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Onnet offnet onnet no
Endpoint -> Outbound -> Offnet offnet onnet no

Enabling recording#

To enable call recording, add "call_recording":{...} to the document of choice. For example, if you have a user with user ID of {USER_ID}, you can patch the user's document using Crossbar:

curl -v -X PATCH \
    -H "X-Auth-Token: {AUTH_TOKEN}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"data":{
    "call_recording":{...}
    }}' \
    http://{SERVER}:8000/v2/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/users/{USER_ID}

Concrete example#

Sales wants calls to and from customers to be recorded but not calls within the account. The sales users would have their call_recording settings set as:

{"id":"{USER_ID}"
 ,"call_recording":{
   "inbound":{
     "offnet":{
       ...recording settings...
     }
   }
   ,"outbound":{
     "offnet":{
       ...recording settings...
     }
   }
 }
}

The call recording settings#

Key Description Type Default Required Support Level
enabled is recording enabled boolean() false
format What format to store the recording on disk string('mp3' | 'wav') false
record_min_sec The minimum length, in seconds, the recording must be to be considered successful. Otherwise it is deleted integer() false
record_on_answer Recording should start on answer boolean() false
record_on_bridge Recording should start on bridge boolean() false
record_sample_rate What sampling rate to use on the recording integer() false
time_limit Time limit, in seconds, for the recording integer() false
url The URL to use when sending the recording for storage string() false

Callflow action - Record Call#

You can enable call recording on a per-callflow basis by using the record_call callflow action. The callflow action can take the following parameters:

Key Description Type Default Required Support
action Whether to start or stop the recording string('start', 'stop') start true
format What format to store the recording on disk string('mp3', 'wav') false
label Label to include in the origin of call recording string() false
media_name the name of media string false
record_min_sec The minimum length, in seconds, the recording must be to be considered successful. Otherwise it is deleted integer false
record_on_answer Whether to delay the recording until the channel is answered boolean false false
record_on_bridge Whether to delay the recording until the channel is bridged boolean false false
record_sample_rate What sampling rate to use on the recording integer false
time_limit Time limit, in seconds, for the recording integer 3600 false
url The URL to use when sending the recording for storage string false

Callflow action - Record Caller#

The record_caller callflow action is meant for recording things like voicemails or IVR prompts. The schema for the callflow action is:

Key Description Type Default Required Support Level
format What format to store the recording on disk string('mp3' | 'wav') false
method What HTTP method to use when sending the recording string('put' | 'post') put false
time_limit Time limit, in seconds, for the recording integer() 3600 false
url The URL to use when sending the recording for storage string() false

Interpreting call recordings and call direction#

Call direction is a field found in CDRs that indicates, from KAZOO's perspective, from whence the call was started. inbound indicates that the phone/carrier has sent the INVITE to Kazoo (inbound to KAZOO). outbound indicates that KAZOO is sending the INVITE to the phone/carrier (outbound from KAZOO).

inbound: PHONE ==INVITE==> KAZOO
outbound: PHONE <==INVITE== KAZOO

Now a lot of calls will involve two phones:

PHONE_A ==INVITE==> KAZOO ==INVITE==> PHONE_B

The INVITE from PHONE_A is the inbound call leg while the INVITE from KAZOO to PHONE_B is the outbound leg.

However, these directions are often not intuitive to end users. Most folks would say a call coming in from the PSTN is an inbound call while the call they place to the PSTN is an outbound call. UI clients, therefore, can't rely on just displaying the call_direction field of a call to indicate the direction of the call from the end user's perspective.

When call recording is configured, the leg being recorded will include the recording information in its CDR. Additionally, if a leg is coming in from or going out to the PSTN, it will include a resource_type field in the CDR's custom_channel_vars. Fetching all legs involved (using the interaction_id), it should be possible to determine the direction of a call from the end user's perspective for the simple case:

End User's Direction Call Direction (A leg) Resource Type (A leg) Call Direction (B leg) Resource Type (B leg) Description
inbound inbound from PSTN offnet-origination outbound to the device undefined A call in from the PSTN to a registered device
outbound inbound from a device undefined outbound to the PSTN offnet-termination A call from a registered device to the PSTN

Those are the simple cases, of course. Where it gets tricky is when a call comes in from the PSTN and is subsequently sent to a call-forwarded device (via PSTN). Both legs will have resource_type set. Or when a device calls another device, no resource_type will exist on either leg. Or when a call is transferred or parked/picked up (sometimes multiple times).

The leg where call recording is started will have media_recording_id set (among others) in the leg's CDR under the custom_channel_vars object.

Hopefully this section can serve as a jumping off point for UI clients to determine how to communicate to end users the direction of calls so that labeling recordings can be done in a way that makes sense for the end user.