If you are looking for an Otter.ai alternative because your meetings are in Hindi, Hinglish or another Indian language, start with one fact: Otter's own help centre lists six transcription languages (help.otter.ai, Supported languages, checked 24 August 2026). Open that list and see whether the languages your meetings are actually held in are on it. If they are not, no feature comparison afterwards changes the answer.
This page covers where Otter genuinely fits, what is different about meetings in Indian offices, and how MeetNotes handles them — so you can decide on facts, and then test on your own audio.
Where Otter fits
Otter is a mature product and for some teams it is the right choice. From our MeetNotes vs Otter comparison:
- Most of your meetings are on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, and you want a calendar-driven notetaker. Otter's notetaker joins all three, and its call workflow is older and deeper than ours.
- You want the transcript appearing live, on a laptop, while the meeting is still running.
- Your meetings are in English and you want the US-workflow integrations that come with a tool built there.
If that describes your week, Otter is a sensible pick and you do not need to read further.
What is different about meetings in Indian offices
Three things show up again and again in Indian meetings, and each one is worth testing any tool against:
- Language switches mid-sentence. "Delivery Friday tak ho jayegi, then we sign off the PO" is one sentence in two languages. A tool that expects one language per recording has to get half of it wrong. Real meetings switch like this constantly, and not only between Hindi and English — Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and others mix in the same way.
- The meeting happens in a room. A lot of important meetings — a site visit, a vendor review, a family business discussion across a table — have no call link for a notetaker to join.
- The minutes go out on WhatsApp. The people who need the decisions often will never create an account or install an app. They need a PDF or Word file they can open.
We have written about the first point in more depth in Hindi and Hinglish meeting transcription.
Otter and MeetNotes side by side
| Otter.ai | MeetNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Online meetings a bot can join | In-person meetings on a phone, plus a notetaker for Zoom, Teams and Meet |
| Transcription languages | Six, per Otter's help centre | No language to choose; mixed-language meetings are transcribed as spoken |
| Needs a call link or invite | For the notetaker, yes | In a room, no — you press record. For a call, a link or an invite |
| Records a meeting with no call at all | Mobile app records; the product is built around calls | This is the core of the product |
| Recipient needs an account | To open a share link, generally yes | No — the share page and the PDF open for anyone |
Otter facts are from otter.ai and help.otter.ai as cited on our comparison page. Check them yourself before deciding; products change.
How MeetNotes handles an Indian meeting
- Record in the room or on the call. Put the phone on the table and press record — no extra device. For Zoom, Google Meet or Teams, send the MeetNotes Notetaker with the meeting link (it joins as a visible participant), or record on the Mac or Windows app with nothing joining the call.
- No language to pick. Hindi, Hinglish, Gujarati, Tamil or a mix of them — the meeting is transcribed as it was spoken, including switches mid-sentence.
- Speakers named. Each line is labelled with the speaker and a timestamp. You confirm names once, and voices you have named are recognised in later meetings.
- Minutes in the language you want to read. Summary, key takeaways, decisions, and action items with an owner and a due date when one was said. The minutes can be written in any of 110 languages, changeable per meeting — so a Hinglish meeting can give you English minutes, and a site engineer can read the same meeting in Hindi.
- Send it where people are. PDF, editable Word, Markdown, text to paste into WhatsApp, or a share link. Recipients need no account and no app.
- Already have recordings? Import audio or video files, including WhatsApp voice notes, on any account.
More on how Indian businesses use it: AI meeting notes for India. The full language list is on /languages/.
Test it on your own meeting, not on our word
Language counts and feature tables are a starting point. The real test is one of your own meetings — ideally one where people switched language and talked over each other. Every account includes 100 free minutes, which is enough for a proper meeting. Run the same recording through each tool you are considering and compare who-said-what, names, numbers, and whether the decisions are right. Our guide on how to test transcription accuracy sets out a fair way to do it, and the open transcription challenge shows blind head-to-heads we have already run on real meetings. For a wider view of the field, see Otter.ai alternatives compared, Otter vs Fireflies vs Notta vs MeetNotes and the comparison hub.
FAQ
Does Otter.ai support Hindi?
Otter's help centre lists six transcription languages (checked 24 August 2026). Check that page for the current list before you decide; if Hindi is not on it, Otter will not transcribe a Hindi meeting.
Can MeetNotes transcribe a meeting that mixes Hindi and English?
Yes. There is no language to choose before recording, and meetings that switch language mid-sentence are transcribed as they were spoken. The minutes can then be written in English, Hindi or any of 110 languages.
Is Otter still a good choice for some teams in India?
Yes. If your meetings are mostly English-language video calls and you want a live transcript and calendar automation, Otter is a mature product built for exactly that.
Does MeetNotes work for Zoom and Google Meet calls too?
Yes. Send the MeetNotes Notetaker into Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams by pasting the link or adding notes@getmeetnotes.com to the calendar invite, or record on the Mac or Windows app with nothing joining the call.
Do the people I send the minutes to need MeetNotes?
No. The PDF, the Word file and the share link open for anyone, with no account and no app.
