The short answer
WhatsApp cannot record calls. To record a WhatsApp call on a Mac with both sides of the audio, take the call in the WhatsApp desktop app and record it on your Mac. MeetingRecorder is a free menu-bar app for Mac that records your microphone and the other person’s voice together and saves an audio file on your Mac. It works for voice calls, video calls and group calls, and it records the sound, not the picture.
Step 0 — take the call on your Mac
A recorder on your Mac can capture only what your Mac plays. Install WhatsApp for Mac, link it to your phone, and start or answer the call there instead of on the phone.
Option 1 — macOS screen recording (⌘⇧5)
Press ⌘⇧5, choose to record the screen, and start. On macOS 15 and 26 the built-in tool records your microphone but not the other person’s voice, so you end up with a video where you can hear only yourself.
macOS 27 fixes the silence: open Options in the ⌘⇧5 toolbar and turn on Include System Audio. You get a large video file with no transcript, and you have to remember the option before the call starts. More on this in recording system audio on macOS.
Option 2 — a local recorder (both voices, one click)
A menu-bar app records your mic and the call’s audio together and saves the file to a folder on your Mac.
With MeetingRecorder the flow is:
- Click Start Recording in the menu bar before or during the call.
- It captures both sides of the call — your mic and the other person’s voice — as one mix, or separate tracks.
- When the call ends, one click gives you a transcript with speaker labels and a short summary.
You get an audio file (M4A), not a video. Everything stays local unless you choose to transcribe, and there’s no account to set up.
The same method works for calls in Telegram, Signal and Viber on a Mac: the recorder captures any app that plays sound.
Which should you use?
- You need the video: ⌘⇧5 (turn on Include System Audio on macOS 27 to hear the other side).
- You want the conversation as audio with a transcript: a local recorder.