Record meetings with MacWhisper: setup, supported apps, and what the beta cannot do yet

By Ryleigh Newman · Published October 10, 2026

MacWhisper can record a meeting and transcribe it afterward. With Automatic Meeting Notifications on, it notices when a call starts in Zoom, Teams, Webex, a browser or another supported app and offers to record. The feature is marked beta, needs the Screen Recording and Microphone permissions, and works only in the version from macwhisper.com, not the App Store edition.

I built YapToText, a different Mac app for dictation and file transcription, so read what I say about MacWhisper with that in mind. Every fact about MacWhisper here comes from its own help center, read on October 10, 2026. The article is Automatic Meetings Recordings with MacWhisper.

This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

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Turn it on

1. Open MacWhisper's Settings, or click Record Meetings on the app's home screen.
2. Choose Record Meetings in the sidebar.
3. Turn on Automatic Meeting Notifications.
4. Allow Screen Recording and Microphone when macOS asks.

The MacWhisper pricing page lists meeting recording among the Pro features.

Apps it can detect

From MacWhisper's help article, read October 10, 2026.

To change the list, open Settings, Record Meetings, click the dropdown, and select or deselect apps.

Record and transcribe a meeting

1. When a call starts, a Meeting Detected notification appears. Click Record. It dismisses itself after 10 seconds if you do nothing.
2. The recording shows in MacWhisper's main window while it runs.
3. Stop it from the bottom right of the main window, or from the Meeting Ended notification.
4. The recording appears in the history sidebar. Select it and wait for the transcript.

No detection needed: Start Recording in the MacWhisper menu records any audio by hand. The article recommends manual recording for critical meetings while the automatic feature is in beta.

What the beta does not do yet

• Separate the other speakers. You set a name for yourself and one default label for everyone else. The article says the other participants are grouped as one speaker for now.
• Promise stability. The article warns of occasional issues or data loss during the beta.
• Run in the App Store edition. Automatic meeting notifications are only in MacWhisper from macwhisper.com. The page on the two editions explains the split.

For speaker labels on a finished file, the speaker recognition page covers what MacWhisper offers.

If a meeting is not detected

• Check the switch. Automatic Meeting Notifications must be on.
• Check the list. The meeting app has to be among the observed applications.
• Restart both. Quit and reopen MacWhisper and the meeting app.

Ask before you record

Tell people you are recording, every time. Recording laws differ by place, and some require everyone's agreement. A local transcript does not change that.

The free route, without live recording

YapToText is not a meeting recorder. It does not detect calls or capture system audio. What it does, free: transcribe a recording you already have, on the Mac, to plain text with no speaker labels. Zoom and other apps can save a recording locally, and the guide to transcribing a Zoom recording walks through it. The Wispr Flow Notetaker page covers a cloud recorder, and the Live Captions guide covers Apple's built-in captions for any call.

This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

The short version

• Where. Settings, Record Meetings, Automatic Meeting Notifications.
• Needs. Screen Recording and Microphone permissions, and the macwhisper.com version.
• Detects. Zoom, Teams, Webex, browsers and chat apps. Not FaceTime.
• Beta. Other participants are one speaker for now.
• By hand. Start Recording in the menu works for anything.

If MacWhisper's meeting recording changes, open an issue on GitHub and I will update this page. Every one gets read.

This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Related

• MacWhisper guides: every page on this site about MacWhisper, by topic
• How to transcribe a meeting on a Mac: on the device, for free, or with a notetaker
• superwhisper for meetings: record a call, label the speakers, and get notes
• How to use MacWhisper: transcribe a file, export it, and dictate
• Speaker recognition in MacWhisper: how to assign, rename and merge speakers
• MacWhisper vs Whisper Transcription: the direct download and the App Store edition compared
• MacWhisper pricing: what the free version does and what Pro adds for €64
• How to transcribe a Zoom recording on a Mac for free, without a cloud recording
• Wispr Flow's Notetaker: how it records meetings, and where the recordings go
• Live Captions on a Mac: real-time captions for calls, videos and the room around you

Sources

• https://docs.macwhisper.com/article/30-record-meetings (checked 2026-10-10)
• https://docs.macwhisper.com/article/32-automatic-speaker-recognition-in-macwhisper (checked 2026-10-10)
• https://github.com/ryleighnewman/YapToText (checked 2026-10-10)
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yaptotext/id6786382289 (checked 2026-10-10)

Questions