Not nonsense. Think keylogger. As it is entered or spoken it is captured prior to encryption.
As an IT professional, I fully understand both concepts—and also understand the potential for a mosquito-sized drone to be hovering over my head 24/7 to gather such unencrypted information (along with a personally targeted mosquito drone for every one else, of course).
However, as for software, the code you mentioned would have to be incorporated into the chain somewhere. Now, since there is money—a lot of it—to be made by people who write software that doesn't include such malicious code, it's a virtual certainty that the malicious routines you mention could be completely eliminated from the entire software chain—hardware and upwards. You can't be arguing that every software developer that sells such software is necessarily compromised by CIA et al!
Furthermore, it's incorrect, IMHO, to presume that such software exists on every smartphone—by default—when you buy it.
So it's not reasonable—though not completely farfetched—to assume that every smartphone has automatically been "infected" with such malicious code.
For example, there's a secure communication app called "Signal". As far as I know, they're not owned—or acting in service of—the CIA, NSA, and their ilk.
So it's entirely possible to install a full chain of software on a smartphone which contains no "keyloggers" and no "audiologgers"—even if you have to author such software yourself, or alternately "splice out" any malicious routines which you might become aware of.
Let me put it another way: if virtually every smartphone is compromised with such malicious code, then you can rest assured that virtually every PC of every kind—Apple included—is similarly compromised.
We're just not at that point yet, IMHO—and if we really are at that point, then the federal government should have already been overthrown by the People, or they should at least start the effort forthwith.
Now, if you can provide any links which will convince me that we have reached the point where the ferragummit has achieved "Total Information Awareness", then I welcome any such information, and will be happy to review it and draw my own conclusions.