What states require two-party consent for recorded calls?

Eleven states currently require all parties on a phone call to consent before the conversation can be recorded: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. That's actually fourteen states when you count them all — the number cited in many sources varies because some states have nuanced statutes that courts have interpreted differently over time, so it's worth verifying current law with a local attorney before setting up any recording system.

In these all-party consent states, simply playing a recording disclosure at the start of a call and allowing the other person to hang up is generally considered sufficient notice, but the rules around what counts as implied versus explicit consent differ by state. California is typically the strictest, with the Invasion of Privacy Act carrying civil and criminal penalties for violations. Florida and Illinois have also seen significant litigation around call recording, so businesses operating in or receiving calls from those states need to be especially careful. The remaining states follow federal law under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which requires only one-party consent — meaning a business can record a call as long as one participant (which can be the business itself) is aware of the recording.

For businesses using AI receptionists or any automated call-handling system, this matters because those platforms typically record calls for quality, transcription, or message delivery purposes. A compliant setup will play an upfront disclosure before any conversation begins, something like "This call may be recorded for quality purposes." That single step protects you in virtually every state, including the strictest ones, and most reputable AI receptionist providers build this into their default configuration.

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