Installing and recording
A free Chrome extension that records WhatsApp Web calls and saves them to your own computer. No account, no dashboard, nothing uploaded anywhere — it has no server to upload to.
What it is, and what it is not
This is a standalone tool for one person. It is not a cut-down version of Qualitify and it is not connected to a Qualitify account: calls it records do not appear in any dashboard, are not reviewed, and are not scored.
| The extension | Qualitify | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | A subscription |
| Account needed | No | Yes |
| Recordings go to | Your Downloads folder | Your company’s dashboard |
| Reviewing and scoring | No | Yes |
| Works for a team | No — one person, one computer | Yes |
| Records phone calls | No | Yes, with the Android app |
If you want a team’s calls recorded, reviewed and scored, that is Qualitify itself. If you want your own WhatsApp Web calls saved on your own machine, this is the right tool and it costs nothing.
What it needs
| Browser | Google Chrome, version 116 or later |
| Where you call | web.whatsapp.com, in Chrome |
| Permissions | The microphone, granted once |
| Account | None |
Installing it
- Install it from the Chrome Web Store.
- The settings page opens on first install. Allow the microphone there — it cannot be asked for from anywhere else, for a reason explained below.
- Turn off Ask where to save each file in
chrome://settings/downloads, if you have it on. Otherwise Chrome stops every hang-up with a Save As box. - Open
web.whatsapp.com, click the extension, and turn on the switch for that tab.
Why the microphone is granted on the settings page
Your own voice is not in the tab’s audio — the tab only carries the other person. Without microphone access a recording has only them on it. The grant has to happen on a page that stays open, and the popup closes the moment focus moves to Chrome’s permission bubble, which is why the settings page asks instead.
Turning it on for a tab
Chrome does not let an extension capture a tab’s audio because it would like to. The person has to invoke the extension on that tab first, and opening the popup is what does it.
So this is one switch per tab, after which calls record and save by themselves until the tab is closed or reloaded. It is not a limitation we chose, and any extension promising fully automatic capture with no interaction at all is either mistaken or doing something it should not.
- Not recording this tab
- The switch is off. Nothing will be captured.
- Watching for calls
- Armed and idle. The next answered call records by itself.
- Recording
- A call is being captured, with a running timer. A badge also appears at the top of the WhatsApp page.
Reloading the tab turns it off, because Chrome revokes the capture grant on a reload. The popup says so rather than leaving you to wonder.
What gets recorded
It watches for a call being answered, not merely ringing — the same detection the desktop recorder uses, so a call nobody picked up is never recorded. There is nothing to hear, and a folder of dial tones is not useful.
Two sources, mixed
- The other person comes from the tab’s audio.
- You come from the microphone, because nothing in the tab carries your own voice.
- Both are mixed into one file, on a single clock, so the two sides cannot drift apart over a long call.
Use headphones
On speakers, the other person’s voice comes out of the speaker and back into your microphone. Echo cancellation removes most of that, and headphones remove all of it.
Where the files go
Into Downloads/WhatsApp Calls/, named so the folder reads in order:
2026-10-24_14-32-07_voice_Dana Haddad_251s.webm
- Date and time
- When the call started. Sortable, so the folder is chronological.
- Kind
- voice or video. For a video call, only the audio is kept.
- Who
- The contact name WhatsApp displayed, or the number.
- Length
- In seconds.
- Format
- WebM with Opus audio — what Chrome records natively. It plays in browsers, VLC and anything modern, and is roughly a tenth the size of WAV for speech.
The folder and the shortest call worth keeping are both configurable on the settings page. Very short recordings are discarded by default, because detection flickers at the edges of a call and a folder full of one-second files is how that shows up.
It is always visible
- A badge sits at the top of the WhatsApp page for as long as it is recording.
- The toolbar icon shows REC while recording and ON while armed.
- There is no hidden mode and no setting that creates one.
Recording a conversation is lawful in many places and conditional in others, and the condition is usually that everybody on the call knows. Telling them is your responsibility — the extension makes recording visible, which is the part it can do. Nothing here is legal advice.
What it does not do
- It does not send your calls, contacts or anything else to a server. There is none.
- It does not read your messages. It watches for the call window appearing, and nothing else.
- It does not touch WhatsApp’s own code, your cookies, or your session keys.
- It does not need an account, and never asks for one.
Its limits and what to do when a recording is missing are in Limits and troubleshooting.