How a Plaud records a phone call
Plaud's card-sized recorders have two modes: one for conversations in the room, one for phone calls. In phone-call mode the device sits against the back of the phone, held by the magnetic case or ring that comes in the box. Plaud's FAQ for the Plaud Note explains why: the device needs to be attached to the back of your phone because its internal vibration conduction sensor picks up sound directly from the phone's speaker.
Because it is hardware, it does not depend on a call-recording app or on what iOS or Android allow. Plaud's own guides on its Australian site say a physical recorder captures both sides of the call and works on any phone.
| Device | Records phone calls? | How (from au.plaud.ai, October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Plaud Note Pro ($309) | Yes | Smart dual-mode recording. A sensor detects how the device is positioned and switches between call and in-person recording automatically. |
| Plaud Note ($269, marked "Discontinued" in the site menu) | Yes | Dual-mode recording. You switch between phone-call mode and in-person mode yourself. |
| Plaud NotePin S ($299) | No | Plaud's FAQ says it has no vibration conduction sensor, so it does not support phone call recording. It is built for in-person conversations. |
| Plaud NotePin ($269) | No | Same as the NotePin S. |
The steps
- Attach the Plaud Note or Note Pro to the back of your phone with the magnetic case or ring.
- On the Plaud Note, switch to phone-call mode. The Note Pro changes mode itself.
- Tell the other person you would like to record, and wait for their answer. The rules are below.
- Long-press the button to start recording, and check the device shows it is recording before you carry on.
- After the call, open the Plaud app. The recording transfers to your phone, and you can then generate a transcript and summary.
Two practical points. The sensor reads sound from the phone's own speaker, so test how your set-up behaves with earbuds or a car kit before you rely on it. And transcription uses your plan's minutes: every device includes 300 minutes a month, and the Pro plan is listed on Plaud's Australian site at $39.99 a month for 1,200 minutes. Device and plan prices on that site are in Australian dollars.
See what a finished file note looks like.
Pick your line of work and we'll send a sample note written from a mocked call. No account, no card, and nothing from your own client files.
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Is it legal to record a phone call in Australia?
There is no single national rule for a recorder like this. Each state and territory has its own surveillance devices or listening devices Act, and a Plaud falls within the definition of a listening device in all of them. The Acts protect a "private conversation", which broadly means one where the people talking could reasonably expect that nobody else is listening. A phone call with a client or a customer will usually qualify.
What follows is general information, not legal advice. We checked each section against the current version of the Act on the official legislation website in October 2026. The Acts carry exceptions and definitions that a table cannot hold, so read the section itself, or get advice, before relying on an exception.
State-by-state: recording a call you are part of
| State or territory | Act and section | What the Act says about recording a call you are part of | What it says about sharing the recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Surveillance Devices Act 2007, s 7 | Consent is generally required. It is an offence to record a private conversation you are a party to unless all principal parties consent, expressly or impliedly. Two exceptions in s 7(3)(b): the recording is reasonably necessary to protect your lawful interests, or it is not made for the purpose of communicating or publishing the conversation to people who were not parties. | s 11 prohibits communicating or publishing a conversation recorded in breach of the Act, with limited exceptions. |
| Victoria | Surveillance Devices Act 1999, s 6 | Consent is not required by this section. The offence in s 6(1) only covers a private conversation you are not a party to. | s 11: you must not knowingly communicate or publish a record of a private conversation made with a listening device unless each party consents, or it is no more than reasonably necessary in the public interest or to protect your lawful interests, or it is in the course of legal or disciplinary proceedings. |
| Queensland | Invasion of Privacy Act 1971, s 43 | Consent is not required by this section. Section 43(2)(a) says the offence does not apply where the person using the device is a party to the conversation. | s 45: a party who recorded must not communicate or publish the record, or a statement prepared from it, except to another party, with the consent of all other parties, in legal proceedings, where reasonably necessary in the public interest, in performing a duty or to protect their lawful interests, or to a person with a reasonable interest in the conversation. |
| Western Australia | Surveillance Devices Act 1998, s 5 | Consent is generally required. Recording a private conversation you are a party to is an offence unless each principal party consents, expressly or impliedly, or the recording is reasonably necessary to protect your lawful interests (s 5(3)(c) and (d)). | s 9 prohibits knowingly publishing or communicating a recording or a report of it, with listed exceptions including consent of each principal party. |
| South Australia | Surveillance Devices Act 2016, s 4 | Consent is generally required. A party may record only if all principal parties consent, expressly or impliedly, or the recording is reasonably necessary to protect that person's lawful interests (s 4(2)(a)). Section 6 adds a public interest exception. | s 9 limits how a recording made to protect your lawful interests can be used or communicated. s 12 covers material from unlawful recordings. |
| Tasmania | Listening Devices Act 1991, s 5 | Consent is generally required. Same structure as NSW: all principal parties consent, or one principal party consents and the recording is reasonably necessary to protect that party's lawful interests, or is not made for the purpose of communicating it to non-parties (s 5(3)). | ss 9 and 10 restrict communicating or publishing recorded private conversations. |
| Australian Capital Territory | Listening Devices Act 1992, s 4 | Consent is generally required. Each principal party must consent, unless a principal party consents and either considers the recording, on reasonable grounds, necessary to protect their lawful interests, or it is not made for the purpose of communicating it to non-parties (s 4(3)). | s 5 makes it an offence for a party to divulge or communicate a record made with a listening device, with exceptions including consent of each principal party. |
| Northern Territory | Surveillance Devices Act 2007, s 11 | Consent is not required by this section. The offence in s 11(1) only covers a private conversation you are not a party to. | s 15: communicating or publishing a record needs the consent of each party, or must be reasonably necessary in the public interest or to protect your lawful interests, or be in the course of legal or disciplinary proceedings. |
On the NSW Act: the version on the NSW legislation website is marked current from 14 August 2026. The party-recording rule in s 7(3) reads in that version as described above.
Why "one-party" and "all-party" are both too simple
The usual shorthand is that five jurisdictions need everyone's consent and three need only yours. That is a fair starting point, and it hides three things.
- The "own use" exception in NSW, Tasmania and the ACT. A party can record without the other person's consent if the recording is not made for the purpose of communicating or publishing the conversation to non-parties. A recording made so a transcript can be produced by a cloud service, filed and read by colleagues or a compliance team is difficult to fit inside that. WA and SA have no equivalent.
- "Lawful interests" is decided case by case. All five consent jurisdictions allow recording that is reasonably necessary to protect your lawful interests (the ACT asks whether you consider it necessary on reasonable grounds). It depends on the facts at the time of the recording. We would not build a routine business process on it.
- The one-party states restrict what happens next. In Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory the recording itself is lawful, but passing on the recording or a transcript generally needs the other party's consent or a listed exception. Queensland's s 45 reaches a "statement prepared from" the record as well. The Acts do not say directly whether sending a recording to a cloud transcription service counts as communicating it. Consent removes that question.
Then there are calls that cross a border. If you are in Brisbane and the other person is in Perth, the Acts do not tell you which one governs the call. The safe working assumption is the stricter rule.
The federal Act sits alongside
The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) prohibits intercepting a communication passing over a telecommunications system (s 7(1)). Interception is defined in s 6(1) as listening to or recording a communication "in its passage over that telecommunications system without the knowledge of the person making the communication". How that applies to a particular recording method depends on how and where the sound is captured, and we do not offer a view on it here. The practical point is in the definition: it turns on the other person not knowing. Telling them deals with the federal Act and the state Acts in one sentence.
If you record for a business, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) also applies to the personal information in the recording and transcript, including where it is sent for processing. Plaud's trust page lists data centres in the United States, Frankfurt, Japan and Singapore, with none in Australia. We go through that in Plaud for lawyers in Australia.
What to say to get consent
Ask before anything of substance is said, say why, and wait for a clear answer. These work on any call.
- Start of the call: "Before we start, I'd like to record this call so my notes are accurate. Is that okay with you?"
- If a transcript will be made: "The recording is turned into a written transcript by a transcription service, and I use that to write up my file note. Are you comfortable with that?"
- Once they agree, with the recorder running: "Thanks. Just confirming for the record that you're happy for this call to be recorded."
- If someone joins later: "Just so you know, this call is being recorded for my notes. Are you okay to continue?"
If they say no, do not record. Take notes by hand and write in your note that recording was offered and declined. There are more versions in call recording disclosure wording you can copy. To check a specific call, use the free Can I record this call? tool, and for the wider law see is it legal to record phone calls in Australia.
- Recording consent
Tom asked at the start of the call whether Priya was happy for it to be recorded and transcribed so the notes would be accurate. Priya said yes. Her answer is on the recording.
- What the client wants
- A fit-out for a 60-seat cafe kitchen, open by Monday 1 February 2027.
- A fixed price if possible. Her budget is $180,000 including equipment.
- What we told her
- A fixed price is possible once the site measure is done and the equipment list is settled.
- The exhaust system needs council approval, which can take several weeks. That is the main risk to the opening date.
- Next steps
- Site measure booked for Thursday 8 October 2026 at 9am.
- Tom to send the draft equipment list by Friday 9 October 2026.
- Priya to send the lease plans and the landlord's fit-out guide before the site measure.
The alternative: use the transcript your phone system or Teams already makes
Most people who record calls do it for the notes. If your calls already run through a business phone system or Microsoft Teams, that system may already produce a transcript, with its own notices and settings. You do not need a second device recording the same call.
CallNote works from that transcript. It does not record calls, join meetings or store call audio. It receives the transcript from Aircall, Dialpad or Microsoft Teams automatically once connected, or you paste or upload one, and it writes a file note in your own format for you to review. Zoom and Google Meet transcripts are uploaded or pasted. The data is hosted in Sydney.
Two honest limits. The consent rules above still apply to whatever makes the transcript, so your phone system or Teams set-up still needs the other person to know. And if your calls happen on a personal mobile with no phone system behind it, there is no transcript to work from. In that case a Plaud used with consent is a reasonable choice, and you can export its transcript as a .txt file and upload it to CallNote if you want the note in your firm's format.
For more on the two approaches, see AI note takers that don't record and the best AI note takers in Australia.
Common questions
Can a Plaud record phone calls?
The Plaud Note and Plaud Note Pro can. They attach to the back of the phone and use a vibration conduction sensor to pick up sound from the phone's speaker, which captures both sides of the call. The wearable NotePin and NotePin S cannot. Plaud's FAQs say they have no vibration conduction sensor and do not support phone call recording.
Is it legal to record a phone call in Australia without telling the other person?
It depends where you are. In Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, a person who is part of a call can record it, but sharing the recording is restricted. In New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, recording generally needs the consent of all principal parties, with narrow exceptions. The federal interception Act also turns on whether the other person knows.
Does a Plaud tell the other person the call is being recorded?
No. A Plaud is a separate hardware recorder. It plays no beep or announcement and nothing appears on the other person's phone. Telling them and getting their agreement is up to you. Plaud's own website says to record with participant consent and follow local recording laws.
Can I record a phone call in NSW if it is only for my own notes?
Section 7(3)(b)(ii) of the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW) allows a party to record a private conversation if the recording is not made for the purpose of communicating or publishing it to people who were not parties. A recording that is uploaded for transcription, filed and read by colleagues is hard to fit within that. Asking for consent is the safer course.
What should I say before recording a call?
Ask at the start, give the reason, and wait for a yes. For example: "Before we start, I'd like to record this call so my notes are accurate. Is that okay with you?" Repeat the confirmation once the recorder is running so the consent is on the recording, and write it in your file note.
Do I need a Plaud if my phone system already transcribes calls?
Usually not. If a business phone system or Microsoft Teams already produces a transcript, a second recorder adds nothing for note-taking. A tool such as CallNote can write the file note from the existing transcript without recording anything itself. A Plaud is more useful for in-person meetings and calls on a mobile with no phone system behind it.