Recording a Teams or Zoom call

TakeNote records a Microsoft Teams or Zoom call from the Record Meeting screen in your browser. You keep the call running as normal and TakeNote captures two things at once: your microphone, and the call audio your computer is playing. Nothing is added to the call, no bot joins, and other participants are not notified by TakeNote.

Because the two sides are captured on separate channels, the transcript can tell you apart from the people on the call even when you talk over each other. This works whether you host the meeting or attend it, and with the Teams and Zoom desktop apps as well as their browser versions.

Before you start

Two things make the difference between a clean transcript and a muddled one:

• Use Chrome or Edge on Windows. Capturing call audio relies on the browser's screen-sharing feature. Chrome and Edge on Windows can share the whole system's sound; Chrome on a Mac can only share the sound of a browser tab, so run Teams or Zoom in a tab rather than the desktop app. Safari, Firefox and iOS cannot capture call audio at all, and the option is hidden on those browsers.
• Wear headphones, and put them on before you start. If the call plays through speakers, your microphone hears it too, so every remote word is recorded twice: once from the call and once from the room. The transcript then shows duplicate words and playback echoes. Headphones remove the problem entirely. TakeNote asks the browser for system-wide echo cancellation where it is available, but headphones remain the reliable fix.

Starting a recording

Open Record Meeting and choose a meeting type. There are three:

• In-person meeting — two or more speakers in the room, captured through the microphone only.
• Teams / Zoom call — a call on this computer. TakeNote captures the call audio directly alongside your microphone. Use this for Teams and Zoom.
• Phone call — a speakerphone call, or a call this browser cannot capture. The microphone records both sides through the room.

Choosing Teams / Zoom call shows a short guide to the sharing step that follows, including the headphones reminder. The Expected number of speakers hint is hidden for this type because the two channels already keep you and the call apart.

When you press Start recording, the browser asks what you want to share. TakeNote uses only the audio; the picture is discarded immediately and never leaves your computer. In the sharing dialog:

1. On Windows, click the screen thumbnail under Entire screen. On a Mac, click the browser tab that is running Teams or Zoom.
2. Switch on Share with system audio (Windows) or Share tab audio (Mac). This toggle starts off and is easy to miss; without it TakeNote records your microphone only.
3. Click Share. Recording begins and the screen switches to the in-progress view.

During the meeting

The in-progress view shows two live audio indicators, one for Microphone and one for Call audio, each with its own waveform and a status such as receiving or waiting for the other side to speak. Watch the microphone bar move when you talk and the call-audio bar move when they do; if both are moving while only they are speaking, your speakers are being picked up and you should put headphones on. Below the indicators, the elapsed time and the usual Pause and Stop and transcribe controls appear as for any other recording.

TakeNote keeps checking both sources while you record and raises a notice if something needs your attention:

• An audio device may have changed — you plugged in or removed a headset mid-call. This alone does not break the recording, but check that both indicators still move.
• Likely speaker echo — the microphone keeps picking up sound while the other side is talking. Put headphones on; the notice clears once the microphone stays quiet during their speech.
• Call audio sharing has stopped — the browser is no longer supplying the call. Use Reconnect call audio to choose the screen or tab again without interrupting the microphone recording.

A quiet indicator on its own is only a prompt to check, never proof of a failure: the other side may simply not be talking.

After the meeting

Press Stop and transcribe when the call ends. TakeNote uploads the audio and starts transcription, then shows a review step where you name the meeting, rename the speakers, choose the client it belongs to and save it to the library. If you close the page before assigning a client, the recording is kept and can be assigned from the dashboard later rather than being lost.

The finished meeting appears at the top of the client's Meetings timeline on their record. Opening it gives you the full transcript, the tasks TakeNote extracted from the conversation, and the options to generate the meeting records and advice documents from what was discussed. Everything stays filed against the client, so the record holds the recording, transcript, tasks, and any documents together.