Record Zoom calls on a Mac.

What echo99 records during a Zoom call

echo99 is a menu-bar app with no bot in the call, so nothing new appears in Zoom’s participant list. It saves two tracks on your Mac:

• Your microphone, saved as mic.wav and labeled “Me” in the transcript.
• Everything your Mac plays, Zoom included, saved separately as system.wav. On-device speaker separation (diarization) labels the other voices “Them-1”, “Them-2”, …

Both are 24 kHz mono 16-bit WAV files. After you stop, the default multilingual model transcribes them on your Mac in any of 25 languages; the audio never leaves your machine. echo99 records sound only, not video or shared screens.

How to record a Zoom call

1. Set up echo99 once. Granting its two permissions (microphone and system audio recording) and downloading the on-device models is covered step by step, with screenshots, in getting started.
2. Join the meeting with computer audio. echo99 records your Mac’s default input (System Settings → Sound → Input), so choose the same microphone in Zoom’s audio settings.
3. Click Record in the echo99 menu-bar panel, before or during the call.
4. Click Stop Recording when the meeting ends, then open Recordings to play the call and read the transcript once processing finishes.

Each recording gets its own folder in ~/Documents/echo99/, named by its start time; you can move the location in Config → Storage. Make a short test recording before an important call. While recording, the menu-bar panel warns you (“Mic looks silent” or “System audio looks silent”) if one side stays silent for about 90 seconds while the other has sound.

To skip the clicks, turn on Auto-record calls in the menu-bar panel. echo99 then starts recording a few seconds after Zoom (or any other app) starts using your microphone and stops shortly after the call releases it. If you only listen and no app is using the mic, start the recording yourself.

Zoom’s own recording, and the host’s permission

Zoom has two built-in options. Cloud recording is for licensed users on paid plans, and only hosts and co-hosts can start it. Local (computer) recording also works on free accounts, but the host has to record the meeting or allow you to.

echo99 uses neither feature, so you don’t need the host’s recording permission for your own copy. That permission is a Zoom setting, not consent: telling people and getting their agreement is still up to you. echo99 is meant to complement Zoom’s recording, not to work around it.

Already have a Zoom recording?

Zoom’s local recording saves an MP4 with the video and an M4A with the audio only. You can import either file into echo99 for an on-device transcript with speaker labels, without recording the call again.

Zoom tips

• Headphones help. With speakers, your mic also picks up the other side’s voice; echo99 can remove that echo from your transcript (Config → Transcription → Speaker echo), but headphones keep the tracks cleanest.
• Switching audio devices mid-call is fine. If you swap from AirPods to the built-in mic, echo99 follows the change and keeps appending to the same files.
• You get the whole call, not per-person stems. Zoom’s local recording can save a separate audio file for each participant; echo99 puts everyone you hear on one system track. Speaker separation splits them in the transcript, and speaker recognition can put names to voices you’ve heard before, but the audio stays a single track.
• Notes from the call. With a local model installed, echo99 can turn the transcript into a summary with action items, still on your Mac.

Tell people you are recording

echo99 never joins the Zoom call, so nothing like Zoom's recording banner tells the others you are recording. Many jurisdictions require the other side’s consent, and your organization or the host may have rules of its own. Say it out loud at the start, before the conversation gets going.

Zoom’s recording features and plan requirements change; the notes above were last reviewed October 2026. See Zoom’s documentation on computer recording and cloud recording for current details.

Related guides: Record Google Meet, Record Teams calls, Record Webex meetings, Speaker identification, Meeting summaries, Transcribe audio and video files