Meeting notes without a bot.

How notes work without a meeting bot

A meeting bot joins through your meeting service. echo99 runs on the Mac you are using for the call: it records your microphone and your Mac’s audio output as separate tracks. There is no bot to invite, admit, or remove, and no calendar connection is needed to start a recording.

Speech recognition and AI summaries also run on your Mac. Your audio and transcript are not uploaded for processing. After downloading the models once, those steps work offline; your online call still needs its usual connection.

From a call to meeting notes

1. Follow getting started to grant microphone and system-audio access and install the transcription models.
2. In Config → LLM, install a summarization model. Enable Summarize automatically after transcription if you want notes after each recording.
3. Tell the participants you are recording. Join the call on your Mac, open echo99 from the menu bar, and click Record.
4. Click Stop Recording when finished. Once transcription completes, read the notes under Recordings → Summary. You can also generate a summary there on demand.

For regular calls, you can enable Auto-record calls. It starts a recording when another app uses your microphone for a few seconds and stops when that use ends. For a meeting you only listen to, start and stop recording manually.

Decisions, action items, and the words behind them

The default instructions ask for an overview, key points, decisions, action items, and open questions. You can change the instructions to suit your own notes. The result is saved as summary.md beside the transcript and source audio.

When a name, deadline, or commitment matters, use the transcript and full-call playback to check what was actually said. A summary can make mistakes; the recording gives you a way to verify it before sharing. See the meeting summaries guide for model setup and limits.

What to expect from local recording

• Your Mac needs to be there. Keep it awake and connected to the call. echo99 cannot attend a meeting for you.
• Audio only. It does not save video, shared screens, or meeting chat. Other sound playing on your Mac may also be captured.
• Participants are not notified automatically. Let people know yourself and follow the recording rules that apply to the conversation.
• Files stay under your control. echo99 needs no account. Its limited telemetry does not include recording content; choose a local storage folder if you do not want your own sync tools to upload the files.

Related guides: Call summaries, Local transcription, Record Slack huddles