Record Zoom calls on a Mac.

A local copy, with no bot in the call

echo99 is not a meeting bot. It never joins the Zoom call and never appears in the participant list. It records two things directly on your Mac:

• Your microphone — saved as mic.wav and always labeled “Me”.
• Your Mac’s audio output — everything Zoom plays, saved separately as system.wav; on-device diarization labels the other voices “Them-1”, “Them-2”, …

Because it captures what your Mac plays, you get your own local recording and transcript for any Zoom call you can hear. Transcription runs on-device afterwards; the audio never leaves your machine.

How this differs from Zoom’s own recording

Zoom’s built-in recording is a separate feature with its own controls: cloud recording is a paid-plan feature stored in Zoom’s cloud, local recording is enabled by the host and your account admin, and only hosts or co-hosts start a recording. echo99 keeps a private copy on your own Mac instead — useful when you want your own reference recording, a transcript, or clean separate audio tracks. It complements Zoom’s recording rather than working around it.

Your responsibility: notice and consent

Because echo99 doesn’t join the call, it doesn’t announce itself the way a bot or Zoom’s recording banner does — so telling people you’re recording is on you. Many jurisdictions require the other side’s consent, and the host or your organization may have their own rules. Say it out loud at the start, and keep your recording within the law and the meeting’s terms.

Set it up, then record

echo99’s one-time setup — granting the two permissions and downloading the on-device models — is covered step by step, with screenshots, in getting started. After that, recording a Zoom call is two clicks from the menu bar: Start Recording before or during the call, Stop when it ends, and your transcript plus both WAV tracks are waiting in ~/Documents/echo99/.

Zoom-specific tips

• Headphones help. With speakers, your mic also picks up the other side’s voice; echo99 has an optional “remove speaker echo” transcription filter for exactly that, 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. Unlike Zoom cloud recording’s separate audio files per participant, everyone you hear shares one system track — diarization separates them in the transcript, not in the audio.
• Audio only. echo99 records sound and produces transcripts; it does not capture screen video or shared slides.

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

Related guides: Record Google Meet, Record Teams calls