Call Recordings

Developers who wish to either download/backup or create an interface for users to listen to call recordings may do so using the call recording metadata and call recording actions of the Call Log API resource.

If you do not already have a call recording in your account, you can do this manually by making a call and clicking the "Record" button in your RingCentral dialer.

How to create a call recording for testing

For simplicity, we are going to step you through using the RingCentral unified app via the web to create an outbound call, and record that call.

1. Open the RingCentral unified app via the web
2. Click the Settings Icon, and choose Calling from the menu
3. In the Calling Mode section, set the value to Direct Dial
4. Close the settings dialog window
5. Open the dial pad of your RingCentral phone, and dial your cellular device (or another outside number not associated with your RingCentral account)
6. Answer the call when it is received on your outside line
7. In the RingCentral phone, click the Record button. You will hear a notification that the call is being recorded
8. Talk to yourself for the next 35 seconds. This is important as RingCentral does not retain recordings shorter than 30 seconds.
9. Click the Record button a second time to stop recording, and then hangup the call to end it.

Obtaining the call recording's metadata

If you have followed all the steps above, you should now have at least one (more if you have done this before) call with a recording listed in the Admin Portal's call log view. If you do not see this record in the Admin Portal, wait a few minutes and check again as occasionally there is a small latency.

Next, use the Call Log API to obtain a list of calls in your account.

In the response from the Call Log API, any call with a recording will have a metadata recording property associated with it that looks similar to the following:

"recording": {
    "uri": "https://platform.ringcentral.com/restapi/v1.0/account/ACCOUNT_ID/recording/RECORDING_ID",
    "id": "RECORDING_ID",
    "type": "OnDemand",
    "contentUri": "https://media.ringcentral.com:443/restapi/v1.0/account/ACCOUNT_ID/recording/RECORDING_ID/content"
}

Of course, you can use the recordings[item].uri property to obtain the Call Recording Metadata as well, but that is redundant.

Obtaining the recordings content

You can now use the contentUri (notice that the subdomain is different in some cases as media... instead of platform...) to obtain the Call Recording Content.

Embedding call recordings in a web page

If you would like, you can use HTML5 supported browsers and the <audio> tag in a web page, and set the src property of the <audio> tag to the recordings[item].contentUri value (make sure to include the access_token query parameter with a valid access_token), and play back the recording in the browser.

Creating a single recording for all legs of a call

In complex telephony scenarios, especially those involving call transfers, a single conversation can often be comprised of multiple distinct call legs. Each leg might generate its own separate recording, leading to a fragmented view of the overall interaction. This chapter outlines a robust solution for developers to reconstruct these disparate recordings into a single, cohesive audio file, providing a complete end-to-end capture of the entire conversation.

To achieve a seamless, end-to-end call recording, follow these steps, leveraging RingCentral's API:

Subscribe to telephony session events

The first critical step is to be notified when a call session concludes. This ensures that all recordings pertaining to a specific call are finalized and available for retrieval.

Use the following event filter: * /restapi/v1.0/account/~/extension/~/telephony/sessions

The resulting webhook notification will provide you with real-time updates when a telephony session transitions to a completed state. The notification payload will contain essential information, including the telephonySessionId, which is crucial for the subsequent steps.

Fetch all call recordings for the session

Once you have the telephonySessionId, you can query the RingCentral Call Log API to retrieve all associated recordings via the following read company call log endpoint. Be sure to use the recordingType=All query parameter to filter out all calls that lack a recording.

Filter and sort recordings by telephony session ID

After receiving the results from the read company call log API, you'll need to process the data to isolate and order the relevant recordings. Iterate through the returned call log entries. For each entry, check if its telephonySessionId matches the one obtained in the step above. Discard any entries that do not match.

Once filtered, sort the remaining call log entries chronologically. Each call log entry will typically include timestamps (e.g., startTime) that can be used for accurate sequencing. This step is vital to ensure that the appended recordings play back in the correct order of the conversation.

Append recordings to create a single cohesive file

The final step involves programmatically combining the individual recording segments into a single audio file. For each sorted call log entry, retrieve the associated recording file (you'll typically find a contentUri or similar URL within the call log entry that points to the recording). Download each recording segment and then append them sequentially.