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# Introducing Audio Only Recording
- URL: https://blog.addpipe.com/introducing-audio-recording/
- Published: 2017-11-22T14:04:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-21T08:24:37.000Z
- Author: Remus
- Tags: Product Updates, #Import 2026-05-22 13:18

[Audio only recording](https://addpipe.com/audio-recorder) is the feature request we constantly received since [launching](https://blog.addpipe.com/pipe-pricing-plans-now-available/) the [Pipe recording platform](https://addpipe.com/). Recently we’ve been hard at work adding the feature and as of today it’s available to all Pipe clients and trials.

### How To Enable It

#### From the UI

You can easily generate a Pipe recording client that records audio only from the [Pipe account area](https://addpipe.com/signin):

1. [Sign in](https://addpipe.com/signin) to your account
2. Go to the Embed Recorder page
3. On the left in the Options panel select \[Record audio only\]  
![Record audio only option in the Pipe account area](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/ao-1.png)
4. Click \[Generate Embed Code\]
5. Copy and paste the newly generated code in your website

#### From the Code

You can also configure your existing embedded recorders to record only audio by adding the new parameter **ao** and setting it to **1** in the embed code like this:

![Turning ON audio only recording from the embed code](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/ao-code.png)

### Looks and Functionality

When audio only is enabled the recording client will now look as follows:

#### On Desktop

![Initial screen of the Pipe desktop recorder client when configured for audio only recording](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/ao2.png)

![Record audio user interface in the Pipe desktop recorder client](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/ao3.png)

#### On Mobile

![Audio recording on mobile Android devices using HTML Media Capture](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/audio-recording-on-mobile-devices.png)

### Support

#### On Desktop

Both the HTML 5 and Flash recorders support audio only recording.

#### On Mobile Android Devices

Recording just audio from Android devices is supported.

#### On Mobile iOS Devices

Unfortunately it is not possible to record just audio from iOS devices at this time because Safari on iOS does not support audio capture through the [HTML Media Capture](https://blog.addpipe.com/correct-syntax-html-media-capture/) standard. When asked to record only audio Safari on iOS will give the user the (wrong) option to record a video or take a picture. The latest we’ve tested is iOS 11.1 .

Lack of support for iOS might not be such a big problem. By looking at our (video recording) data for September 2017 we determined **only 0.4% of all recordings were recorded from iOS**, the rest were recorded from Android (9.6%) and from desktop devices (90%).

![Video recording chart showing iOS and Android](https://blog.addpipe.com/content/images/2017/11/ios-video-recordings-chart.png)

### Quality

#### On Desktop

- The Flash client will record audio using NellyMoser’s ASAO codec at 44.1 kHz in a .flv container. This is converted to AAC at 44.1 kHz in an .mp4 file.
- The HTML5 client will record audio using Opus codec at 48 kHz in a .webm container. We convert it to AAC at 48 kHz in an .mp4 file.

#### On Mobile (Android)

When recording audio from mobile devices a wide range of containers and audio codecs will be used depending on the device and Android version. As of now the following codecs and containers are supported.

| Container | Audio Codec |
| --------- | ----------- |
| mp3       | mp3         |
| m4a       | aac         |
| 3gp       | amr-nb      |
| 3gpp      | amr-nb      |
| 3gpp2     | amr-nb      |
| aac       | aac         |

All of them are converted to .mp4 files with AAC while keeping the original sampling frequency.

### Pricing

Recording audio files will be priced at 1¢/min.