A Google Meet AI note taker that never joins the call
OpenNoteTaker (opennotetaker.app) is a Google Meet AI note taker that works from the tab your call is already playing in. Nothing dials in, nothing waits in the lobby to be admitted, and no extra name appears in the participant list. The audio is transcribed inside the page, so the recording is never uploaded.
Most note takers for Meet send a named participant into the call. Someone has to let it in, everyone can see it, and plenty of companies block it outright. This Google Meet AI note taker reaches the sound from the other side: the browser you are listening through. Free, open source, and no account needed for recording and transcription.
What you need
- Chrome or Edge. Tab audio — which is everyone else on the call — can only be captured in Chrome and Edge, and only when you pick the tab and tick “share audio” in the browser’s share dialog.
- The meeting open in a browser tab. That is the ordinary way to join Meet, so on this platform it is rarely a constraint.
- A connection, once. The transcription model is downloaded the first time and cached. After that, transcription works with the network off.
How the Google Meet AI note taker works
- Join your Meet call in Chrome or Edge, as yourself.
- Press Record a meeting. The optional browser extension can also notice that you have joined a Meet room and offer to start; it never records anything itself.
- Read out the consent screen. It opens before every recording, it cannot be skipped, and it cannot be told to stop asking. Whether you may record is a question for the people in the call.
- Pick the Meet tab in the share dialog with “share audio” ticked. Your microphone is recorded alongside it.
- Stop when the call ends. The transcript is made in the same tab.
Recording only your microphone does not work on a call: the browser’s echo cancellation removes what your speakers play, which is everyone else. The tab has to be in the capture, and the app warns you if you switch it off.
Google Meet transcription on your own machine
- 99 languages. Whisper is compiled to WebAssembly and runs in the page. The language is detected every few seconds, so a call that moves between two languages comes back in both, on one timeline.
- Who said what. Speakers are separated on your device, with no model to download. It works well for two or three people with distinct voices and struggles with similar voices and crosstalk; you can set the number of people and move any line to someone else.
- A note, not just a transcript. Topics, action items and decisions are pulled from the transcript in your browser, for free.
- Every export. SRT, WebVTT, plain text, Markdown, JSON, CSV and HTML.
Three features run on our backend instead and use credits: AI-written minutes, a question across your whole library, and translating a finished transcript. They send transcript text, never audio, and the price is on the button before you press it. Everything else this Google Meet AI note taker does is free, because it runs on your hardware. See pricing.
What it cannot do
- Firefox and Safari do not give a page tab audio, so they cannot capture the other side of a Meet call.
- Replace the host’s recording. This is your own transcript, on your own machine, visible to nobody else.
- Decide whether you may record. That is the consent screen’s job and yours.
OpenNoteTaker is an open-source AI note taker (MIT or Apache-2.0). The step-by-step guide to recording a Google Meet call in your browser covers the same method in more detail, and where your meeting audio goes shows what leaves the machine and what does not. The same method also covers Teams in the browser.
Questions
Does this Google Meet AI note taker join the call?
No. It records the audio already playing in your browser tab, so no bot appears in the participant list and nobody has to admit a guest.
Do I need a Google Workspace plan or Meet’s own recording?
No. It does not use Meet’s recording or transcripts at all; it works from the tab you joined in. If Meet’s own recording is available to you and you are entitled to use it, that remains the host’s route.
Is the Google Meet AI note taker free?
Recording, transcription, telling speakers apart, the topics and action items, search and every export format are free. AI-written minutes, questions across your library and translating a finished transcript use credits.
Does the audio leave my computer?
No. Transcription runs in the tab, and the audio is discarded when you close a note unless you choose to keep it.