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Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet can each write AI notes now, and for a lot of people they’re the right choice. They differ from Recordist in where your words end up and who can open them, so we went to each company’s own pages and set the answers side by side. We read them on 8 November 2026, and the date is beside every fact.
If your organisation already pays for one of these and most of your calls are meetings it hosts, stay with it. If your clients choose the platform, or you want the record in a folder of your own, try Recordist on your next call and judge it for yourself.
Each of these companies has built something people rely on every working day, and that’s where we’d like to start.
Zoom lets anyone on its free Basic plan try AI summaries on 3 hosted meetings a month, and that’s generous. My Notes works on other companies’ calls and in a room too, and by default only the person who took the notes can open them. Zoom also says in writing that customer audio, video and chat don’t train its AI or the third-party models it uses, and we’re glad it does.
Teams recap marks who spoke and when, so you can jump straight to that moment. Microsoft keeps the notes inside the organisation’s own Microsoft 365, in its own region, and says customer data isn’t used to train or test any AI model. Facilitator lets the people on the call edit the notes while the meeting is still going.
Google Meet tells everyone on the call that notes are being taken and puts a pencil on every screen, which is exactly what we’d hope to see. The notes arrive as an ordinary Google Doc that people already know how to use. Google also says your content isn’t used to train its AI models outside your domain without your permission.
If one of these sounds like you, we’d tell you to stay with the notes you already have.
These are the people we had in mind when we made it.
If someone at your firm has to approve a tool like this, send them the page we wrote for reviewers. If the decision is yours, try it with the Wi-Fi off before your next call.
These are the rows where the products really differ on where your words go and who controls them, and what they do that we don’t is in the list above. Every line about another company comes from that company’s own page, and the date beside it is the day we read it.
| Question | Zoom | Microsoft Teams | Google Meet with Gemini | Recordist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where your words are kept | My Notes and their transcripts are saved to your Zoom account, and you open them in Zoom Hub and Canvas. Zoom says the audio used to make the transcript is deleted once the transcript is done. A meeting summary is in Zoom Hub as well, and it can be emailed or posted to the meeting’s chat. Read 8 Nov 2026 [1][2][5] | Recap’s AI notes and tasks sit in an Exchange folder in each participant’s mailbox. The transcript is in the organizer’s Exchange Online account, with another copy in OneDrive when the meeting is recorded. With a Microsoft Copilot licence, a scheduled meeting can instead get a summary with no transcript saved, and that summary is a Word document in the organizer’s OneDrive that expires after 120 days by default. Facilitator keeps its notes on a Microsoft Loop page. Read 8 Nov 2026 [12][13][16] | In a Google Doc in the meeting organizer’s Drive, inside a folder called Google Meet. The doc follows the organisation’s Meet retention policy. Read 8 Nov 2026 [25][26] | In a folder on your machine, and Settings → General shows you which one. We never receive your audio, and we have no server that could hold it. Audio is kept for 30 days by default, which you can change, and transcripts and notes stay until you delete them. If you choose a cloud AI provider for notes, the transcript goes straight from Recordist to that provider under your own account. As of 8 Nov 2026 What the app sends out |
| Who can open them | By default only you can open your My Notes, and they aren’t shared with the host or the others on the call. Your account’s authorized admins can view them in the admin portal. A meeting summary goes to the host, and to participants if the host shares it. Read 8 Nov 2026 [1][5] | People in the organisation who were invited to a meeting can open its recap. Anyone else can’t, even with the recording link, unless someone shares it with them. A summary made with no transcript saved is open only to attendees in the organizer’s organisation who have a Copilot licence. Anyone in the meeting can edit Facilitator’s notes page. Read 8 Nov 2026 [13][14][16] | By default, invited guests in the organizer’s organisation. A host can share the doc with invited guests outside it, and an administrator sets the default and can stop hosts changing it. Read 8 Nov 2026 [25][26] | You, and anyone who can sign in to your machine. We have no access and no copy. Nobody else sees a meeting unless you send it to them or connect a service to it yourself. On a Mac your organisation manages, it can choose to archive each meeting to its own storage, which we never receive. As of 8 Nov 2026 How it’s protected |
| What you must have | A Zoom account and either Zoom’s web app or the Zoom Workplace app, version 6.7.5 or later on the desktop. The free Basic plan includes 3 uses of My Notes and summaries of 3 hosted meetings a month. Zoom’s Pro, Business and Enterprise plans list both as unlimited. The paid My Notes plan lifts both as well, and lists 10 searches and 3 in-person transcriptions a month. Read 8 Nov 2026 [2][3][6] | A Microsoft 365 subscription with Teams, plus a Teams Premium or Microsoft Copilot licence for recap. Copilot in Teams and Facilitator each need a Microsoft Copilot licence. Your administrator has to turn transcription on for recap, apart from the summary that saves no transcript, which needs a Copilot licence and a meeting policy with Copilot enabled. Read 8 Nov 2026 [11][13][15][16] | The organizer needs an eligible plan, which Google lists as Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard or Enterprise Plus, or an eligible Google AI plan. An administrator can turn it on or off. Read 8 Nov 2026 [25][26] | A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14.6 or later, 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, or x86_64 Linux. It’s free to download, with no account. Free keeps recording, transcription and search unlimited and writes 3 AI notes a month after your first 7 days of Pro, and Pro lifts that. As of 8 Nov 2026 Free and Pro, side by side |
| Calls someone else hosts | My Notes works on calls on other platforms, whoever hosts them, though not from Zoom’s mobile app, and those transcripts use general speaker labels rather than names. In a Zoom meeting someone else hosts, the host can see who is using My Notes and can stop it. Only a host or co-host can start a meeting summary, and anyone on the call can ask them to. Read 8 Nov 2026 [1][3][5] | If someone outside your organisation created the meeting, Copilot isn’t available, and you can’t start transcription or open the transcript afterwards, though you can read the live transcription during the call. Facilitator’s live updates aren’t shown to external participants. After the call, the organizer, a co-organizer or a presenter can email you the AI summary. Capture on Windows, made for calls on platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet, is currently only available to Office Insiders Beta customers. Read 8 Nov 2026 [14][15][16][17][18] | Only the organizer and people in the host’s organisation can start or stop notes, and with host controls on, only the organizer, hosts and co-hosts can. The doc goes to the organizer’s Drive. Read 8 Nov 2026 [25] | Any call your machine plays, on any platform, whoever hosts it, because nothing joins the call. You tell the others, and Recordist gives you the words. By default it asks you when a call starts, before it records. Everyone on the other side shares one label, so it can’t say who said what. As of 8 Nov 2026 How the card works |
| What happens when you leave | If an administrator deletes your account, your data is permanently removed unless it’s transferred to another licensed user first. An administrator can instead unlink you, and then you keep your own Zoom account. Zoom’s transfer list names notes, and doesn’t say whether that covers My Notes transcripts or summaries. Read 8 Nov 2026 [8][9] | When your account is deleted, your manager gets access to your OneDrive by default, and it’s kept for 30 days by default before deletion begins. Recap follows the organisation’s retention policy. If the organisation ends its subscription, Microsoft keeps the data for 90 days so it can be taken out, and deletes it within 180 days. Read 8 Nov 2026 [12][21][22] | If your account is deleted and your files aren’t transferred first, they’re kept for 20 days and then deleted. A super administrator can move them to a new owner. Read 8 Nov 2026 [30][31] | The folder stays on your machine, and you can copy it to a new one. If you stop paying for Pro, the app goes back to Free and your meetings stay where they are. There’s no account to close with us. If the machine belongs to your employer, the folder stays with it unless you export your meetings first, so check what your employer allows. As of 8 Nov 2026 How to cancel · Moving to a new machine |
| What happens with no connection | Zoom lists an internet connection in its system requirements, and says My Notes streams audio to the Zoom cloud to make the transcript. Read 8 Nov 2026 [1][10] | Microsoft’s network guide for Teams starts by checking that all your locations have internet access. We found no Microsoft page describing notes written with no connection. Read 8 Nov 2026 [20] | Google lists a broadband connection among Meet’s requirements, and names connectivity problems as one reason in-person notes can come out incomplete or not appear at all. Read 8 Nov 2026 [27][29] | A video call needs a connection whichever app you use. Once its models are downloaded, Recordist records, transcribes and, with the built-in engine that’s on by default, writes the notes with no connection at all, so a room with no Wi-Fi or a seat on a plane makes no difference. As of 8 Nov 2026 What works offline |
| What you can see being sent | Zoom’s white paper explains where the audio goes, and admins can set how long things are kept. We found no Zoom page describing a list you can open of what the app sent from your own machine. Read 8 Nov 2026 [1][4] | Administrators can search audit records of who used Copilot, when and where, including updates to Facilitator’s notes. On Windows, Microsoft’s free Diagnostic Data Viewer shows the diagnostic data Teams sends, and Microsoft says that data leaves out content such as a chat message. Read 8 Nov 2026 [23][24] | Administrators can search log events showing who used Gemini and in which service. We found no Google page describing a list a person can open of what left their own machine. Read 8 Nov 2026 [32] | Open Settings → Privacy → Privacy Ledger. It lists the app’s network requests with the host, the bytes, the reason and where each one went, and we never see that list. A few kinds of request aren’t recorded yet, and Help names them. None of those carries audio, transcripts or notes. As of 8 Nov 2026 The Privacy Ledger, explained |
We haven’t tested whose notes are more accurate, so this comparison makes no claim about that.
Whichever you choose, tell the people on the call that notes are being taken. How to ask to record a call has the words.
You don’t have to take our word for any of this. It takes a few minutes, and you can do it before your next call.
If you’d like a second opinion the app can’t shape, run a network monitor such as LuLu or Little Snitch while you record a call and watch what it reports. You can put any notes app you’re weighing through the same test, ours included.
Check it in Settings → Privacy → Privacy Ledger
what left, exactly
| when | what | to | bytes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 14:41 | transcript of “Pricing sync”, its title and attendees, and your template | api.anthropic.com (your key) | 41,208 |
We never receive audio or this list, and notes requests go only to the provider you chose. Each one is written here before it is sent. With the built-in engine and no organisation archive, this table stays empty.
The app writes its network requests to its Privacy Ledger, with the host, the bytes sent, the reason, and whether each one stayed on this machine or went to the local network or the internet. Open it any time in Settings → Privacy.
Each page was read on 8 November 2026. Everything we say here about a company comes only from that company’s own pages.
Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Copilot, Google Meet, Gemini and the other product names on this page belong to their owners and are used only to identify their products. Recordist isn’t affiliated with any of them.
The bread from the big bakery is fine, and plenty of people are glad to have it on the table every day. We bake ours differently, in your own kitchen, where you can watch it happen and the loaf stays with you. It feels different to us, and we think you may feel that too.
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Wren · Recordist's support assistant (AI)
It answers from the Help Center and isn't a human.
Hi, I'm Wren, Recordist's AI support assistant. I'm not a person; I answer from Recordist's help articles and docs. Ask me what Recordist can never see, how to check a note against the call, or how refunds work. Want a person? Choose "Talk to a human" at any time and someone at Recordist replies within one business day.
What I can't do: see your files or reach your recordings, issue refunds, or make commitments on Recordist's behalf. What I say about recording laws is general information, not legal advice. Please don't paste transcripts or audio here; I don't need them, and support never asks for your transcripts or meeting audio.