Google Recorder could soon fix its biggest drawback for power users

The Pixel-exclusive Google Recorder has everything you can ask for from an audio recording app. However, managing saved recordings is anything but simple. Recorder can store audio files in the cloud or directly in the app. Accessing these files from your native file manager app is cumbersome and requires you to download them via Android’s share sheet. A future update to Google Recorder could finally make things a tad easier.

Digging into version 4.2.2 of the Google Recorder app, we have surfaced a new toggle in its settings page labeled “Access recordings in other apps.” The accompanying description explains that audio files will be accessible either via the Files by Google app or other file manager apps on the device.

When enabled, all future audio recordings are automatically saved to your device storage within the Recordings folder. While you’d assume this would be the system default, an optional toggle makes more sense from a privacy perspective.

Because audio files can be sensitive, they are stored by default in a sandboxed folder and can only be accessed via the Recorder app. This upcoming toggle gives users more flexibility for future recordings while retaining the existing manual save option.

We found that enabling this toggle won’t affect existing recordings; only future recordings will appear in internal storage. Additionally, we can confirm the app will remember your choice when you set it up on a new device or when you clear all data and manually re-download the audio files from the cloud.

Since the toggle works as advertised, it probably won’t take long for it to appear in the Recorder app’s settings page. That said, only Google knows when it will be rolled out to everyone. When (or if) that day comes, we expect this handy toggle to roll out through a quiet server-side update.