New iPhone app Yallo lets you record your conversations

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Get Yallo in on your phone conversations.
Get Yallo in on your phone conversations.
Photo: Yallo

When I first became a reporter, I bought one of those little mics you could suction-cup to a telephone to record interviews. That was some gadget, except for having to tape it to the handset because the suction cup sometimes popped off.

You can still buy this kind of microphone or use your smartphone with an app called Yallo. A simple interface lets you record incoming calls, share the recorded conversation with an associate or have recordings transcribed and automatically sent to email.

Yallo debuted in the iTunes store about a month ago and has been downloaded more than 120,000 times, according to the company based in Tel Aviv in Israel. The app was first available for Android and quickly earned a place on several “Best Apps” lists.

Call recording is not the only reason the app has been popular, especially in the business community. Yallo users can make low-cost international calls, log in to their account on another device and attach a caption to a phone call to let the person you’re calling know what you want to talk to them about. Voice mails can be transcribed and sent to email and Yallo will automatically redial any call that gets dropped.

Yallo is a free download, however there are some costs when calling with the app. A tab in the upper right lets you see the Yallo rate for the area you are calling. Incoming calls are free as are Yallo to Yallo calls.

All Yallo communications are stored on cloud-based servers and the company promises complete security and privacy.

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