inDrive has rolled out a new in-app audio recording feature designed to strengthen safety and support fairer dispute resolution between riders and drivers. The tool is now live within the Safety Centre of the inDrive app across several African markets, including South Africa and Nigeria, positioning the platform alongside rivals that have already introduced similar capabilities.
How the feature works
The audio recording tool can be activated manually by either the driver or the passenger at any point before or during a trip. Once switched on, the recording captures audio for the remainder of the journey and can later be submitted as supporting evidence if a complaint or dispute arises. inDrive says the feature cannot be triggered secretly or run in the background without direct user action, and both parties are notified that the option exists before a trip begins.
Recordings are end-to-end encrypted, and the company says neither drivers nor passengers can access, download, or share the audio themselves. Encryption keys are held exclusively by inDrive’s internal security team and are only used when an official complaint requires investigation. Even then, users must give explicit consent before a recording can be shared with inDrive’s support team as part of the resolution process.
Catching up with the rest of the industry
The move brings inDrive in line with other major e-hailing platforms operating on the continent. Uber introduced an opt-in audio recording feature in South Africa in December 2022 following a pilot in Johannesburg and Pretoria, while Bolt added its own encrypted trip recording option in July 2023. inDrive’s version follows a similar structure, requiring manual activation and encrypting all captured audio until a dispute investigation calls for its use.
The rollout also builds on a series of safety upgrades inDrive has introduced in recent years, including expanded emergency contact sharing, real-time ride sharing with trusted contacts, and a redesigned Safety Centre that gives users faster access to police or ambulance assistance during an incident.
Why it matters for African riders and drivers
Safety concerns remain one of the biggest factors shaping trust in ride-hailing across African cities, where regulatory oversight of e-hailing platforms varies widely between countries and enforcement can be inconsistent. Features like audio recording give both riders and drivers an additional layer of protection in markets where formal complaint processes can be slow or difficult to substantiate without clear evidence.
For drivers in particular, who often face disputes over fare disagreements or passenger conduct with little institutional support, a verifiable record of what happened during a trip could meaningfully change how disputes are resolved. For riders, the presence of a recording option may offer additional reassurance in a market where safety incidents involving e-hailing trips have drawn public attention in the past.
As African governments continue to develop clearer regulatory frameworks for e-hailing services, features like this are likely to become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator. inDrive’s challenge going forward will be ensuring the tool is used consistently and that its privacy safeguards hold up as adoption grows across a wider range of African markets with different data protection standards and levels of digital literacy.
