Google Recorder Unofficially Available For Other Phones Except Xiaomi

It's almost amusing to see so much interest form around an audio recording app but that's pretty much what's happening with the Google Recorder. Originally exclusive to the Pixel 4 and then to all Pixels except the very first, the app has generated quite a good amount of fanfare because of its transcription capabilities. Now some of that goodness is being made available, unofficially of course, to many Android phones running the latest versions of the OS, unless your phone happens to be using Xiaomi's MIUI.

The Pixel 4's Google Recorder app made a big splash because of its offline transcribing feature. In addition to the quality audio recording the phone was able to make, the app presented itself to be an indispensable tool for journalists and students. It's not the only recording app out there, of course, but one that comes from Google definitely carries some weight.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, Google limited its availability to the Pixel phones, specifically the Pixel 2 and later. It didn't take long for others like XDA to take the app and retrofit it for phones from other manufacturers. It works but it's not perfect and may depend on the phone you're using.

The biggest requirement is that the phones need to be running at least Android 9 Pie or Android 10. XDA lists which phones fully work with transcription and which ones only have partial support. Curiously, phones like the OnePlus still make the transcription but the only way to read them would be to transfer the recordings to a Pixel phone.

The only phones that don't seem to work with the modified APK are Xiaomi's, specifically those running MIUI 10 or 11. It reveals modifications that Xiaomi may have done to basic Android components like TextView since the same phones running ROMs based on AOSP apparently have no problems at all.