Recording
Capturing a call's actual audio so it can be listened to again later — a different, generally more sensitive artifact than a transcript, and off unless separately enabled.
Text captures the words; audio captures the words plus tone, pace, hesitation, and the caller's own voice, itself identifying information in a way plain text isn't. The now-familiar “this call may be recorded” disclosure traces back to wiretapping law written for a much older technology, decades before automated phone systems existed.
A restaurant a few weeks into an automated line wants to know how calls actually sound, not what got ordered — does the system handle an interruption gracefully. A transcript can't answer most of that; tone and pacing live only in the audio.
The most consequential mistake is assuming hearing “AI” or “this call may be monitored” implies the audio is being recorded. It doesn't necessarily — those words describe automation in the moment, not a legally sufficient recording notice on their own.
Recording a call's audio is a separate, independently enabled capability — off unless a restaurant turns it on for a specific location, and disclosed at the start of the call when it's on, covered on Retention.
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