How to record and transcribe meetings

A typical working week can include several kinds of meeting. There’s the video call with a client, the stand-up on Teams, the coffee with a supplier, and the hallway conversation that turned into a decision. Each one produces something worth keeping, and each tends to be recorded differently, if it’s recorded at all.

This guide covers the usual ways of recording and transcribing meetings, the trade-offs people run into, and how to use Fabric for both online calls and in-person meetings so every transcript ends up in one searchable place.

How people usually record and transcribe meetings

The video platforms have their own recording tools. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet can record calls, and on some plans they produce a transcript. What you get depends on your account type and your organization’s settings, and the recordings stay inside each platform, so a team that uses all three ends up with transcripts in three places.

Notetaker services such as Otter or Fireflies send a bot into the call to record and transcribe. They work across platforms and produce tidy summaries. The bot appears in the participant list, which some clients and external guests find off-putting, and some companies block unknown bots from joining at all.

For in-person meetings, the phone’s voice memo app is the usual answer. It records reliably, but a forty-minute audio file is slow to review, and a transcript has to come from somewhere else.

Then there are handwritten or typed notes. They capture what the note-taker thought mattered and miss the rest, and they’re hard to write while also taking part in the conversation.

Step 1: Install the desktop app

Meeting transcription in Fabric runs through the desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Install it and sign in. Recording and transcribing meetings needs a paid plan; the individual plans page shows which plans include it.

Before you record anyone, let the other participants know and check the rules where you are. Consent requirements for recording vary by country and state, and by workplace.

Step 2: Transcribe online calls without a bot

Start a call in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet as you normally would. Fabric detects the meeting and offers to start transcribing. Accept, and the transcript appears in real time. No bot joins the call, so there’s no extra participant for anyone to see. The AI meeting and voice notes page has more on how this works.

While the meeting is going, you can search the transcript and ask the AI questions about it. That helps when someone refers back to a number from ten minutes earlier, or when you join late and want to know what’s been covered.

You can also write notes before or during the call. Agenda points, names, and questions you want to raise all sit next to the live transcript and can be added to as the conversation moves.

Step 3: Record in-person meetings and voice notes

For a meeting around a table, a site visit, or an interview, start a voice or meeting note manually in any Fabric app. The mobile app is the practical choice when you’re away from your desk. Place the phone where it can pick up the whole table and stop the note when you’re done.

The same approach works for thinking out loud on a walk or recording ideas after a meeting ends. How to record and transcribe an in-person meeting covers room setup and placement in more detail.

If you already have recordings from before you used Fabric, upload them. Audio and video transcription works on MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, MOV, and WebM files, so an archive of past meetings can be transcribed and searched alongside new ones.

Step 4: Review the write-up and search past meetings

When a meeting ends, Fabric analyzes your notes and the transcript together and produces a write-up of the meeting. Read it while the conversation is fresh and correct anything that needs it; transcripts can be edited.

Every transcript is searchable. Press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows) and describe what you remember, such as “when Priya said the launch would slip”. Fabric search matches by meaning and jumps to the timestamp. See how to find something someone said in a meeting for more on this.

To look across many meetings at once, keep them in a folder, open it, and ask the AI assistant a question such as “what did the client ask for across our last four calls?” It answers from that folder and cites the moments it drew on, with timestamps.

Write-ups and transcripts are Fabric documents, so they can be shared like anything else. Share a meeting note with a colleague as a viewer, commenter, or editor, and they can open it from a link without signing up if they’re outside your workspace. Collaboration covers comments and live editing on shared notes.

It also helps to give recurring meetings a home. A folder per client or project keeps related transcripts together, which makes the assistant’s answers more focused when you scope it to that folder. Folders are optional, though; search finds a transcript wherever it sits.

Frequently asked questions

How do I transcribe a meeting without a bot joining?

Install the Fabric desktop app and start your call in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. Fabric detects the meeting and offers to transcribe it, and no bot joins.

Can I record an in-person meeting with my phone?

Yes. Start a voice or meeting note manually in the Fabric mobile app. When you stop it, Fabric produces a write-up from the transcript and any notes you took.

Is meeting transcription free?

No. Recording and transcribing meetings needs a paid Fabric plan. The free plan includes notes and file uploads but not transcription.

Can I see the transcript during the meeting?

Yes. The transcript appears in real time, and you can search it and ask the AI questions about it while the call is still going.

Which meeting apps does Fabric work with?

The desktop app detects meetings in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. For anything else, start a voice or meeting note manually.

Can I transcribe old meeting recordings?

Yes. Upload the audio or video file and Fabric transcribes it. Supported formats include MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, MOV, and WebM.

Can I search across all my meeting transcripts?

Yes. Fabric search covers every transcript and jumps to the timestamp. Meetings in the AI knowledge base describes how teams use this.

Do I need to tell people I’m transcribing the meeting?

It’s good practice to tell participants, and in many places it’s a legal requirement. Check the rules that apply where you and the other participants are.