Can someone know if the person on the other side is screen recording during a video call?

Following the incident of naked video conversations of school teachers being recorded, a technical review of the screen recording capability, which has caused undue fear for some, is published herewith. While it is possible to detect if a phone screen is being recorded during a live video, this depends on the relevant software, operating system, and existing security measures.

Applications like Snapchat are designed to protect content, and if someone records a snap or a chat, the relevant person is immediately notified. 

Furthermore, if the recording feature in applications like Zoom is used, all participants in the conversation are notified, but third-party recording software cannot always be detected. Especially, highly secure applications containing banking and financial information completely block screen recording using the technical features available in Android or iOS systems, and in such cases, the recorded video only appears as a black screen.

However, detecting screen recorders during live broadcasts on social media networks like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok is an extremely difficult or impossible task. According to the current situation, the person broadcasting live content on such platforms receives no notification about screen recorders, and applications like TikTok have not yet introduced such a detection mechanism.

From a technical perspective, the latest operating systems like Android 15 and 16 have introduced new methods (APIs) for software developers to detect whether screen recording is active. Streaming services like Netflix use Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to prevent screen recordings, and as a result, the recorded video appears as a black screen without any visuals. Additionally, if someone is screen recording, a small red dot or a special icon might appear at the top of the phone, but this is often only visible to the person performing the recording.

Someone being unusually silent or not actively participating in a live conversation can sometimes be an indirect hint that they are recording. Finally, it is safer to operate under the presumption that one is being recorded during any live broadcast and to ensure that information one is unwilling to share publicly is not exchanged.