⏺️ Call recording

[nickvergessen]

Following up on #1232 and some other issues here is the draft of the call recording feature we plan to work on.

📐 Design

Mockups & prototypes

• Top bar is extended to show Add useful information to the top-bar when in a call #6766
  • Headline: Conversation name
  • Subline:
    • Recording icon when the call is being recorded
    • Duration of the call
    • Number of call participants
    • Description of the room
• To start or stop a recording any moderator can use the "…" menu in the topbar next to the Call button
  • Starting and stopping should be logged as a system message
  • It might be necessary to play a sound when recording is started/stopped (to be clarified)
• The recording shall be shared in the chat as a "normal file" but have a special section in the Media tab of the sidebar
• Option to only record audio?

⚙️ Engineering

Requirements

• Recording will be done with a virtual participant
  • Recording will be only speaker view for v1
  • First shared screenshare will be recorded if there is any
• Web UI needs to show the same thing in "Promoted view" that is being recorded (currently not the case when sharing your own screen)
• The recording shall be uploaded to either the/a owner/moderator of the conversation or to a "recording bot" users storage and then shared back into the chat.

Constraints

• Only supported with HPB

Previous issues, attempts and solutions

• [feature request] call recording #1232
• https://github.com/MetaProvide/talked @mwalbeck

---

Work packages

• Web frontend: @marcoambrosini
  • ⏺️ Call recording 🖌️ Frontend #8325
• Recording "client": @danxuliu
  • ⏺️ Call recording 🙇 Virtual participant #8327
• Server API
  • ⏺️ Call recording 🛠️ Server API #8326
• Android
  • ⏺️ Call recording support talk-android#2554
• iOS
  • ⏺️ Call recording support talk-ios#977

[nickvergessen]

@mwalbeck Hi there, we also had a look at your talked app. There are some aspects that we like and some aspects that we don't like. If you want to, you could join our public talk chat ( https://cloud.nextcloud.com/call/c7fz9qpr ) at some point and we can clarify what can be reused and what should be redone and whether that will obsolete your app or be a side solution (since yours also works without the HPB if I saw that correctly)

[sudwhiwdh]

In the spirit of data sensitivity and user self-determination, I would find it wonderful if you introduce a similar transparency as BigBlueButton will do in the upcoming version.
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/2.6/new.html#improved-notification-of-recording-start
It would be important to me that it is clear to participants at all times that they are being recorded. I also like the idea of giving participants the opportunity to leave a recorded room before they actually enter it, if they don't want to be part of the recording.

[nickvergessen]

It would be important to me that it is clear to participants at all times that they are being recorded.

We plan to have a trigger message shown as well as a permanent indicator in the view.

Notifying people on the device checker/join Call screen when a recording is running already is also a good idea. 👍

[SystemKeeper]

• Starting and stopping should be logged as a system message

Will this also be send as a signaling message? When we're in a call in talk-ios, we don't receive chat messages - only if the user opens the chat. So at the moment we would need to periodically check if recording is started or not.

[nickvergessen]

Should be doable additionally.

[SystemKeeper]

It should be clear from the description and how we plan to implement it, but I think it should be noted somewhere that this is only supported in group conversations and not for all conversation types like 1:1.

[nickvergessen]

Should we block 1-1? People could work around it by creating a group conversation with a single person as well. So I would not block this.

[SystemKeeper]

So a virtual participant can join a 1:1 then? Then it's fine for me, thought that didn't work and only creating a group with one person would work.

[nickvergessen]

Hmm I think it's totally independent of the server/API part. But @danxuliu can confirm

[nickvergessen]

Regarding the start/stop recording and playing a sound.

• https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Themen/Unternehmen-und-Organisationen/Informationen-und-Empfehlungen/Empfehlungen-nach-Angriffszielen/Remote/Videokonferenzsysteme/videokonferenzsysteme_node.html
• https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Mindeststandards/CommunityDraft_Mindeststandard_Videokonferenzdienste.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4

As per the paper I found it has to be signaled that the call is being recorded at any time. Opposed to the "a user joined/left" it does not mention playing a sound, so I would say the current plan stands:

• We show the info on the device checker screen
• We enforce the device checker when recording is active
• We show a "showSuccess" message when the recording ist started/stopped
• We show the ⏺️ icon on the call time as already implemented.

[abdusalamApps]

Awesome that you are working on this feature. I'll see if I can help. I can do Android development. So if Android ddevs here need help on this feature, I'm more than happy to help out.

[nickvergessen]

cc @mahibi

[nickvergessen]

All done but #8327
So closing this one and treating #8327 as follow up