Yahoo! Messenger Blog

Recording Yahoo! Messenger calls

January 4, 2008 on 1:37 pm | In Voice | 11 Comments

The New York Times recently had an interesting article about software for recording internet phone calls. Recording calls can be handy if you’re using your computer to make business calls, or there’s just a memorable conversation you want to archive (like my nephew’s first phone call with me when he was 2).

The article mentioned a couple of programs that work with Yahoo! Messenger – Solicall and HotRecorder. Solicall is a call enhancement program with recording options, while HotRecorder offers recording and archiving capabilities. I took HotRecorder for a test drive to see how it worked.

Download and installation for HotRecorder was quick and easy. I did notice it was set with Skype as the default program for recording calls from, and I couldn’t figure out right away how to change that to Yahoo! Messenger. But a quick search of their online help set me straight – right click on the HotRecorder icon in the system tray, select “Activate HotRecorder for…” and then choose Yahoo! Messenger. If you don’t see Yahoo! Messenger in the list initially, make sure it’s running on your computer.

I then placed a call in Yahoo! Messenger. I was hoping that HotRecorder would detect that a call was taking place and start recording on its own, but it didn’t. However the HotRecorder window is small and can sit alongside your Messenger call window, so it’s easy to just click the record button in the window to start. A timer appeared in the HotRecorder window to let me know the duration (note that with the free version, your maximum recording time is 2 minutes). Once my call ended, I clicked the stop button. The HotRecorder window changed, showing me the call duration and recording file size (a :27 conversation was 7 KB), and also provided data fields I could fill in for the filename, who the call was with and keywords. Then I clicked Save, a brief encoding process took place and I was returned to the original home screen.

HotRecorder also has a “Player” tab that allows you to access your saved conversations from that session (you can access recording from past sessions by opening them off your hard drive). You can search for conversations (by person, date or keyword), replay them, and even send a recording to a friend. When you send to a friend, it attaches the recording in an .ELP file format to an email. Your friend will then need to download and install HotRecorder on their own computer to listen to the .ELP file.

HotRecorder also offers some “Emotisounds” you can play on your call like “Booing”, “Baby’s Cry” and “Cheer” (15 in total). The good news is they’re different from the Soundboard sound effects offered in Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0 so between the two, you can add a lot of fun to your calls.

HotRecorder is free if you only need to record calls that are 2 minutes or less; the premium version is $14.95. I found it very handy for recording both PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calls from Yahoo! Messenger.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager