The difference is what each one can physically hear.
Your phone records its microphone. It hears the room: you, and anyone in it with you.
Your laptop records its microphone and everything coming out of its speakers. It hears you and the people on the call, because their voices arrive through the computer.
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Video call on Zoom, Teams or Meet | Laptop |
| In-person meeting or interview | Either; phone is easier |
| Conversation in a corridor, taxi, or on site | Phone |
| A call connected on that same phone | Neither; see below |
| Somewhere with no signal | Phone |
| You want a transcript as it happens | Laptop |
| You want to ask Junior questions mid-call | Laptop |
Calls on the phone itself
Junior can't record a call that's connected on the same phone. While a call is running — a normal phone call, or a Teams, Zoom or Meet call you joined on the handset — the call holds the microphone, and only one app can hold it at a time.
To capture a call like that, join it from your laptop and record there, or send Junior's bot into the meeting so nothing depends on your device at all.
The one that catches people
Recording a video call on your phone captures your side of it clearly and the other side barely, or not at all. Their voices are coming out of your laptop, on the other side of the desk. It looks like it worked, because the timer ran and the waveform moved. Use the laptop for anything on the laptop.
Questions
Can I record a phone call?
Not on the phone that's on the call. A connected call holds the microphone, so Junior won't start while it's running and tells you the microphone is unavailable. That's true on speakerphone as well. Record from your laptop instead, or send the bot.
Should I record on both at once as a backup?
You can, and you'll get two calls in Junior rather than one better one. If you want a safety net for an important interview, the laptop recording is the one to trust, and it already keeps recording locally through a network drop.