Meeting notes on Mac and iPhone: record a meeting, get the transcript, speakers and a summary
Alcove records a meeting and turns it into a note. On the Mac it hears your microphone and the call's sound, so it works with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime or any other call app; on iPhone and iPad it records the room. When you stop, the note has the recording, the transcript with who said what, and a summary with decisions and action items you can turn into tasks. Speech is transcribed on your device.
Taking notes in a meeting means half listening. You write down what was said a moment ago while missing what's being said now, and afterwards the action items live in three people's memories and nobody's to-do list.
Alcove's meeting notes do the writing for you. Press Record when the meeting starts and Stop when it ends. You get a note with the recording, the transcript with who said what, and a summary with the decisions and action items, and the action items can become tasks in one go.
Meeting notes need macOS 26 or later on the Mac, and iOS or iPadOS 26 or later on iPhone and iPad.
How to record a meeting on Mac
- Start it. Click Record in Alcove's menu bar card, press ⌥ ⌘ R in the app, or say "Record a meeting in Alcove" to Siri. When a meeting from your calendar begins, or a call app starts using the microphone, Alcove also offers to take notes.
- Talk as usual. Alcove hears your microphone and the sound of the call, so it works with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, Slack huddles or a call in the browser. Nobody else has to install anything, and no bot joins the call. You can hide the panel; the recording carries on in the menu bar with the words as they're said.
- Stop. Alcove saves the note, then tells the voices apart and asks you who they are. Name them, or skip and rename them later.
- Read the summary. Apple Intelligence writes a short summary, the decisions and the action items. Check the action items, and the ones you keep become tasks linked to the note.
How to record a meeting on iPhone and iPad
On iPhone and iPad, Alcove records the room through the microphone, which suits in-person meetings, interviews and lectures.
- Tap the microphone in Notes, add Alcove's Record Meeting control to Control Center, the Lock Screen or the Action button, or say "Take meeting notes in Alcove".
- The recording keeps going with the screen locked.
- When you stop, you get the same note: the recording, the transcript, the speakers and the summary.
What the meeting note contains
| Part | What you get |
|---|---|
| Recording | The whole meeting as one audio file in the note, playable on any of your devices |
| Transcript | Every turn with the speaker and the time, as paragraphs you can search |
| Speakers | Person 1, Person 2 and You, renamed to real names whenever you like |
| Summary | What it was about, the main points and what was decided |
| Action items | Who does what and by when, checked before any becomes a task |
Everything lives in a normal Alcove note, so you can edit it, add your own notes under it, link it to tasks or move it into a folder.
Meetings in Indian languages
Alcove transcribes fourteen Indian languages on your device, including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu. Apple's speech recognition writes them in English letters; Alcove writes them again in their own script, on your device, so a Malayalam meeting reads as Malayalam. Whole English sentences stay in English, and English words used in the middle of the language are written the way people write them in that script.
Many meetings in India switch between languages. Choose Indian languages, mixed as the meeting language, and in Settings pick the script those meetings should be written in.
Privacy
Meetings are some of the most private things you record, so nothing about them goes anywhere you didn't choose:
- Speech is transcribed and voices are told apart on your device.
- The summary is written by Apple Intelligence on your device.
- The note and its recording sync through your own iCloud, like the rest of Alcove.
- Voice memory, which suggests names for voices it has heard before, is off until you turn it on, and stays on your device.
Tips for a better transcript
- Use headphones on calls. The other people's voices then come straight from the call rather than through your speakers and back into the microphone.
- Sit near the device in a room. Speech is clearest within a couple of metres of the Mac or iPhone; a big echoing hall is the hardest case.
- Pick the meeting's language before you start. For a meeting in Malayalam with some English, choose Malayalam or Indian languages, mixed rather than English.
Questions people ask
Which Mac, iPhone or iPad do I need?
A Mac with macOS 26 or later, or an iPhone or iPad with iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, because meeting notes use the on-device speech recognition those versions brought. The summary also needs Apple Intelligence, which needs a Mac with Apple silicon, an iPhone 15 Pro or later, or an iPad with an M1 or A17 Pro chip or later. The rest of Alcove runs on macOS 14 and iOS 17.4 or later.
Does it work with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet?
Yes, on the Mac. Alcove records your microphone and the sound the call plays, so it works with any call app, in the browser or not, with no bot joining the call. The first time, macOS asks you to allow Alcove to record system audio.
Does my audio leave my device?
The recording is transcribed by Apple's speech recognition on your device, and people are told apart on your device too. The summary is written by Apple Intelligence on your device. The note, with its recording, syncs through your own iCloud. Alcove doesn't send your meetings to any other service.
Which languages does it transcribe?
The languages Apple's speech recognition supports on your device, including English, the major European and Asian languages and fourteen Indian languages. Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and the other Indian languages are written in their own script, not in English letters, and whole English sentences stay in English. For a meeting that mixes several Indian languages, you choose the script in Settings.
How does it know who said what?
When you stop, Alcove tells the voices apart and labels them Person 1, Person 2 and so on, with you as You. It plays a short sample of each so you can name them. If you turn on voice memory, it suggests the names next time; voices are kept on your device and never shared.
Do I need Apple Intelligence?
For the summary, decisions and action items, yes, in a language Apple Intelligence supports. Without it you still get the recording and the full transcript with speakers.
Can it start on its own when a meeting begins?
It asks rather than starts. When a meeting in your calendar begins, Alcove offers to take notes, and on the Mac it also asks when a call app starts using the microphone. One tap starts recording.
Is it free?
Your first three meeting recordings are free, with the transcript, the speakers and the summary. Alcove Unlock, a one-time purchase for Mac, iPhone and iPad, records as many as you like, and you can try it free for 14 days.
Is it legal to record a meeting?
The rules depend on where you and the people you're recording are. The simple habit is to tell everyone at the start that you're taking notes with a recording.