Recording announcements in Quebec: what to say, in which language

A recording announcement on a Quebec business line has to do two jobs at once: name the purpose of the recording, which Law 25 asks for, and be delivered in French, which the Charter asks for. "This call may be recorded" fails the first and, delivered in English first, undercuts the second.

Most announcements in use today were written for neither statute.

What Law 25 wants it to contain

Consent has to be informed and tied to a specific purpose. An announcement is not consent by itself, but it is where the information lives, so it has to carry:

• that recording is happening — not "may be"
• the purpose, named — quality, training, dispute evidence
• enough for the caller to decide whether to continue

"May be recorded" is the standard phrasing and the weakest. It tells the caller nothing decidable: it neither confirms recording nor names why.

What the Charter wants of it

It is part of telephone service, so it is in French. If your flow offers English, the English announcement lives in the English tree — not stacked in front of the French one.

The failure to avoid is announcing in English first because that recording was made years ago and never revisited.

Writing one

Weak:

This call may be recorded for quality purposes.

Better:

Cet appel est enregistré afin de vérifier la qualité de notre service.

The second confirms rather than hedges, names one purpose, and is shorter. If you record for more than one purpose, name them — and note that under Law 25 separate purposes need separately obtained consent, so a list in an announcement is not a shortcut around that.

Where it goes. After the greeting, before the menu — a caller should know before they start giving information, not after. And if only some calls are recorded, the announcement belongs on those paths, not on every call, because an announcement on a call you do not record is simply inaccurate.

The retention half nobody announces

Neither statute asks you to announce retention, but Law 25 limits how long you may keep the information for the purpose you named. An announcement claiming quality assurance sits awkwardly next to a recording kept for three years, and the announcement is the thing a complainant will quote back.

Where Ringfully is, honestly

Ringfully stores a per-organisation recording announcement and lets you edit it. It is not yet played on the call. The stored text reaches no part of the call flow, so it cannot currently discharge the Law 25 information duty — in French or any other language.

That is stated on our recording policy rather than left for you to find. An organisation that has not enabled recording does not record, and replay is permission-gated. There is also no automated retention schedule yet: recordings persist until removed.

We would rather you knew both before configuring anything.

A description of what the statutes ask, not legal advice. Announcement wording that satisfies two regimes at once is worth ten minutes with a Quebec-qualified adviser. Related: consent under Law 25.