To record a meeting on a Mac and get minutes, install MeetNotes for Mac from the Mac App Store, open it, and click record. The Mac's built-in microphone picks up the room. When you stop, you get a transcript with each speaker labelled, plus minutes of meeting: a summary, key takeaways, decisions and action items with owners, as a PDF or an editable Word file.
One thing to know before you start: the Mac app records the room through the microphone, the same way the phone app does. It is made for meetings around a table, interviews, lectures and your own voice notes. It does not capture the sound of a Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams call playing on your Mac. For online calls, you invite the MeetNotes Notetaker instead (more on that below).
Step by step: recording a meeting on your MacBook
- Install MeetNotes from the Mac App Store and sign in. If you already use MeetNotes on your iPhone or Android phone, sign in the same way you do there, and you are in the same account.
- Allow the microphone. The first time you record, macOS asks whether MeetNotes may use the microphone. Click Allow. If you clicked Don't Allow by mistake, turn it on in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone.
- Put the MacBook in the middle. Open the lid and put the laptop where the voices meet, not at the end of the table next to one person. The quietest speaker should be as close as you can manage.
- Tell the room you are recording. It is courteous, it is how you get consent, and nobody is surprised when the minutes arrive. Our guide to recording consent has a line you can use.
- Click record, then have the meeting. There is no language to choose and no speaker setup.
- Stop, and confirm the names. The recording uploads, and the transcript comes back labelled by speaker. Rename "Speaker 1" to a real name once, and the minutes, the PDF and later meetings use it.
Getting a clean recording on a Mac
A laptop is a good room microphone if you give it a fair chance:
- Keep the lid open. A MacBook with its lid closed goes to sleep, and a sleeping Mac records nothing.
- Plug it in for long meetings. A board meeting or a half-day workshop is a long time to run on battery.
- Don't type on the recording Mac. The keyboard sits right next to the microphones, so every keystroke is loud in the recording. Take your own notes on another device, or better, don't: that is what the minutes are for.
- Keep it off the projector cart. Fans, a humming projector or an air-conditioning vent next to the laptop all end up in the audio.
- For a big room, move closer. One laptop at one end of a 20-seat boardroom will struggle with the far end, just as any single microphone would. Put it in the middle, or record on a phone at the other end as well.
What you get when the meeting ends
The same minutes as on the phone, because it is the same product and the same account:
- A full transcript with each speaker labelled and timestamped
- Minutes of meeting: summary, key takeaways, decisions, and action items with owners and a due date when one was said
- A PDF or editable Word file you can send on WhatsApp or email; the people you send it to need no account
- Every action item in one task list, across meetings
MeetNotes handles meetings that switch language mid-sentence, such as Hindi and English, and it can write the minutes in any of 100+ languages. If you want to see what good minutes look like first, see our minutes of meeting generator page.
Your phone and your Mac share everything
MeetNotes for Mac is the same App Store app as the iPhone version. That means:
- One account. Meetings recorded on the phone show up on the Mac, and meetings recorded on the Mac show up on the phone.
- One minutes balance. Minutes you already have, from the free start or a pack or plan bought on your iPhone, work on the Mac too. Every new account starts with 100 free minutes.
- The web too. Any meeting can also be read, searched and exported in a browser at getmeetnotes.com/app.
So you can record the site visit on your phone in the morning and the office meeting on your MacBook in the afternoon, and find both in the same list.
What about Zoom, Google Meet and Teams on the Mac?
The Mac app does not record your computer's audio, so it will not capture the other side of a video call. For online meetings, use the MeetNotes Notetaker: paste the meeting link in the app, or add notes@getmeetnotes.com to a calendar invite you organise. The notetaker joins as a visible participant, records, and leaves when everyone else has. The minutes arrive when the call ends, in the same account. The details are in our Zoom, Meet and Teams guide.
If you want a tool that records your Mac's own audio without anyone joining the call, that is a different kind of product. We compare one of them honestly in ChatGPT Record vs MeetNotes.
Recorded it already with Voice Memos or QuickTime?
Macs come with Voice Memos and QuickTime Player, and both record audio for free. What they give you is an audio file, not minutes. If you already have that file, import it into MeetNotes and it becomes a transcript and minutes like any other recording.
Not only for meetings
The same microphone works for:
- Interviews and one-on-ones, where you want the exact words later
- Lectures and trainings, with the key points and actions pulled out
- Thinking out loud. Self mode turns a voice note to yourself into to-dos, reminders, ideas and decisions, in a private space only you see. See our voice journal guide.
More on recording rooms (with a phone or a Mac) is on the in-person meeting recorder page.
FAQ
Is there a meeting recorder app for Mac that writes the minutes?
Yes. MeetNotes for Mac is on the Mac App Store. It records the meeting through your Mac's microphone and returns a speaker-labelled transcript plus minutes of meeting: summary, decisions and action items with owners, as PDF or Word.
Can MeetNotes for Mac record a Zoom or Teams call?
Not from the Mac's audio. The Mac app records the room through the microphone. For Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, invite the MeetNotes Notetaker to the call, and the minutes arrive when it ends.
Do I need to buy minutes again for the Mac?
No. It is the same App Store app and the same account as the iPhone app, so your minutes balance and your meetings are shared between phone and Mac.
Is MeetNotes available for Windows?
Not yet. MeetNotes for Windows is coming to the Microsoft Store. Until then, you can read, search and export every meeting in a browser at getmeetnotes.com/app.
Is it legal to record a meeting on my laptop?
Rules vary by country and situation. The safe, normal practice is to tell everyone you are recording and get a clear yes before you start.
