How to Transcribe Meetings on a Mac Without a Bot

Why skip the bot

Bot-based note takers join your call as a participant. That has costs a local recorder does not have:

• Everyone sees "Notetaker AI has joined". In some meetings that changes what people say; in client calls it can need an awkward explanation.
• The host has to admit the bot, and locked-down workspaces often block guests entirely.
• Each platform needs its own integration. A bot that works in Zoom may not exist for the tool your client insists on.
• Your meeting audio streams to the bot vendor's servers as a matter of design.

A Mac-side recorder avoids all four. It captures what your Mac already plays and what your microphone already hears, so the meeting platform never knows it exists. One honest cost remains and it applies to both approaches: you still need permission to record. More on that below.

Record your first meeting with Auri Voice

The Meetings feature lives in Auri Voice's sidebar. If you have not installed the app yet, the setup guide covers the two permissions; meetings add screen-audio capture, which macOS asks about on first use.

1. Open Auri Voice and press ⌘4, or click Meetings in the sidebar.
2. Confirm you have permission to record. Auri asks once before your first recording.
3. Start the recording before or during the call. Auri captures your microphone and the call audio separately, which is how it can tell you apart from the other side.
4. Run the meeting normally. The transcript builds live, on your Mac, using a local speech engine.
5. Stop when the call ends and click "Create notes".

You get four sections: Summary, Highlights, Decisions, and Action items. Owners and due dates appear on action items only when someone actually said them. A meeting nobody decided anything in produces an honest, short Decisions section, which is its own kind of useful.

Speaker labels you can fix

Auri separates speakers as the call runs, tagging your microphone separately from the meeting audio. Afterwards, open the Speakers sheet to rename them ("Speaker 2" becomes "Priya") or merge two labels when the same person got split. Playback follows the transcript, so you can click a line and hear who said it before renaming.

Where the audio and transcript go

Transcription runs on your Mac with a local engine. What happens to the audio afterwards is a setting, not a policy: open the Meetings gear, then Capture and storage, and pick under Saved audio:

• Keep for 30 days (the default) — audio is removed after 30 days; the transcript and notes remain.
• Keep until I delete it — audio stays on the Mac until you remove the meeting.
• Delete after notes are ready — Auri keeps no meeting audio once transcription and notes finish.

One step is honest to name: writing the notes uses your selected AI processing provider, which is Auri Cloud by default — the transcript text is sent, never the audio. If the meeting is sensitive, switch AI processing to Auri Local (Apple Silicon) and the notes are written on the Mac too. The Mac privacy guide covers the full picture.

Consent is your job, not the software's

Recording laws differ by state and country, and many require every participant's consent. No app setting changes that. The workable habit: say "I'm recording this for notes, fine with everyone?" at the top of the call, and skip recording when someone objects or when the meeting covers material your employer would not want recorded. For meetings you cannot record, the follow-ups guide has a dictation method that works from memory.

Transcribe a recording you already have

Meetings also accepts existing files: press ⌘O or click "Import recording" and hand it an audio file. You get the same transcript, speaker separation, and notes as a live recording. This covers the voice memo from your phone, the webinar you downloaded, or the interview a colleague recorded.

Getting the notes out

The Export button writes a plain-text file with the full structure: title, date, duration, attendees, summary, highlights, decisions, action items, and the transcript. Plain text pastes cleanly into email, Slack, Notion, or a ticket. For the two-minute follow-up message, the faster path is to leave the export alone: read the Decisions and Action items, press your dictation shortcut, and speak the follow-up directly into Mail.

What it costs

The free plan includes two meetings, with no expiry on them, alongside 1,111 words of dictation. Auri Pro removes both caps: $10 a month billed annually, or $17 month to month. If you only need to transcribe audio files occasionally and never dictate, a file-transcription tool like MacWhisper may be all you need; Auri earns its place when the same app handles your meetings and your daily writing.

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