Ending a Meeting

When your meeting is over, Groupthink wraps it up and turns the conversation into a recap with notes and a full transcript. The notetaker can stop on its own when the call winds down, or you can stop it yourself. Either way you do not have to do anything to get the recap. This guide covers both, and where to find the finished notes.

Overview

A meeting in Groupthink ends one of two ways:

• Automatically, when the call winds down or goes quiet
• Manually, when you stop the notetaker yourself

As soon as the meeting ends, Groupthink builds the recap and emails it to the agenda's Hosts and the people who were invited to the agenda. See Who gets the recap email?

Stop the Notetaker Yourself

When the notetaker is in a call, Hosts on the agenda see a Stop Taking Notes button next to the active meeting. Participants and Viewers don't see it.

1. Open the meeting in Groupthink
2. Click Stop Taking Notes

The notetaker leaves the Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams call right away, and Groupthink begins building the recap.

If you don't see the button, the meeting ends on its own or when a Host stops it.

When Meetings End Automatically

You do not have to stop the notetaker by hand. Groupthink ends a meeting on its own when the call is no longer active. This happens when:

• Nobody ever joins the call
• Everyone has left the call
• The conversation has gone quiet for about 10 minutes

When the underlying call ends, the notetaker leaves and Groupthink wraps the meeting up the same way it would if you had stopped it yourself.

After the Meeting Ends

Once the meeting ends, Groupthink generates the recap automatically. You do not have to request it.

The recap includes:

• A short summary and description of the conversation
• Decisions, action items, and follow-ups pulled from what was discussed
• The agenda items you covered
• A full transcript of the call

The recap is built in the background and appears on the meeting's recap page once processing finishes. Most land within a minute; a slower one can take ten to thirteen.

The Action items block shows commitments in two groups: the ones that were stated directly, and softly phrased ones marked Suggested that you accept or dismiss in a tap. Items whose owner was not clear stay in the list with an Unassigned pill so you can pick an owner. When the block is empty it says that nothing cleared the bar rather than claiming the meeting produced no commitments. See Action Items.

Lines From Your Notes

If you typed notes during the meeting, the Summary on your recap marks the lines your notes shaped. A marked line has a pencil in place of its bullet and a faint tint behind it, and a caption under the list reads "Lines marked with a pencil came from your notes. Click one to see the note."

Click a marked line to open From your notes under it, with the line from your notes in quotes. Click the line again to close it. Unmarked lines keep their plain bullet, and recaps from before this was added show a plain list.

In the iPhone app, the same marks appear under Topics on the meeting's recap. Tap a marked line to see the note.

From Your Record

Below the notes on the Summary tab, you may see a block called From your record. It lists what you already had going with the people in this meeting before it started.

Each person gets their own entry, with up to three kinds of lines:

• Open commitments, written as "You owe Dana: Send the deck" or "Dana owes you: Send the deck". If the commitment has a due date, it follows the text, as in "You owe Dana: Send the deck · Due Monday". When Groupthink does not know who owes whom, the line shows the commitment text alone.
• Open threads, written as "Open thread:" and the topic. Some threads also say "needs action".
• Last in touch, with the date of your last interaction with them before this meeting. It also shows that interaction's title and channel when Groupthink has them.

Click a person's name to open their page in Groupthink.

Things this meeting itself raised are not repeated here. The block shows up to 10 people in name order, and up to 5 commitments and 5 threads for each person.

The block shows on your own view of the recap when you are signed in. It does not show when you switch to the general recap with View general recap.

You will not see the block when:

• The meeting has no calendar event, or the calendar event has no guests
• None of the guests match a person you have in Groupthink
• You have no open commitments, open threads, or earlier interactions with the guests who do match

Where to Find the Recap

Open the meeting from your dashboard or calendar to reach its recap page. The page has two tabs, Summary and Transcript. The Summary tab holds the notes, decisions, and follow-ups. The Transcript tab holds the full conversation.

Recap Email

Watch: the recap email ends with a few things to bring up next time, in 32 seconds.

Groupthink emails a recap to the agenda's Hosts and anyone you invited from the agenda's Share window, even if they did not attend the call. People who are on the agenda only because they were on the calendar invite don't get it automatically, whether or not they use Groupthink. If you are a Host on the agenda, click Send recap to attendees on the recap page to send it to everyone on the invite who doesn't have it yet. Nothing is sent until you click Send, and you can untick anyone who shouldn't get it. See Sharing a Meeting With Someone Who Doesn't Have an Account.

The email includes a brief summary, a Suggested openers for next time section when Groupthink has some (a few things you could bring up the next time you talk), and a link to the full recap page.

When you have history with people from the meeting, the email adds one line with a count, such as "You have history with 3 people from this meeting.", and a link to see it in Groupthink. The email gives only the count. The names and details are on the recap page. See From Your Record.

Exporting Your Recap

You can download the transcript as a text file or copy it to your clipboard from the Transcript tab on the recap page. Click Download Text to save it locally, or Copy to Clipboard to paste it elsewhere.

To share the recap without the full transcript, use Copy summary at the top of the Summary tab. It copies the summary, decisions, and action items as text, ready to paste into email or chat. Your private notes are never included.

For the full walkthrough, see Exporting Meeting Transcripts and Summaries.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I stop the notetaker mid-meeting?

If you are a Host on the agenda, open the meeting in Groupthink and click Stop Taking Notes. The notetaker leaves the call and Groupthink starts the recap.

Do I have to end the meeting for the recap to be generated?

No. The recap is generated automatically once the meeting ends, whether you stopped the notetaker yourself or it ended on its own.

What happens if everyone leaves but no one stops the notetaker?

Groupthink ends the meeting on its own. When the call empties out or goes quiet for about 10 minutes, the notetaker leaves and the recap is generated.

When will I see my recap?

Usually within a minute. About a third take longer than that, and roughly one meeting in seven lands in a ten to thirteen minute band, so a recap that has not appeared yet is very often still coming.

The page tells you where it is rather than leaving you to guess. While the recap is being written, it reads Processing meeting notes... and lists each part of the recap, such as Summary and Action items, with its own status: Queued, Working, Done, or Didn't finish. There is no time limit on this wait. As long as Groupthink is still working on your recap, the page keeps checking on its own, and the notes appear without a reload.

When processing ends, you see the recap. If there is nothing to show, the page tells you why, and that nothing more is coming:

• No notes for this meeting, when no speech was recorded or the notetaker never made it into the call. The sentence underneath gives the reason.
• No notes for this meeting, when Groupthink finished and did not find anything to summarize.
• Some of this recap is missing, when part of the recap did not finish. The parts that did finish still show.

Each of these has a Refresh button if you want to check once more.

The agenda's Hosts and the people invited to the agenda also get an email with the summary and a link. See Who gets the recap email?

Who gets the recap email?

The agenda's Hosts, plus anyone you invited from the agenda's Share window, including people who did not join the call. A Host who was added from the calendar invite and has never signed in to Groupthink is skipped.

People who are on the agenda only because they were on the calendar invite don't get the recap automatically. This is true whether or not they have signed in to Groupthink. They are still on the agenda, so the ones with a Groupthink account can open the recap in the app. A Host can send it to all of them at once with Send recap to attendees on the recap page, or to one person with the recap's Share button.

To turn automatic recaps on for one of them, invite them from the agenda's Share window. This works even though the calendar invite already put them on the agenda, and whether or not they have signed in to Groupthink. Their role does not change. They also stay on the agenda if they are later removed from the calendar event, like anyone else you added by hand.

Someone else has to invite them. Entering your own email address in the Share window does not turn your own recaps on.

See also Gifted Recaps.

Getting Help

Questions about ending a meeting? Email support@groupthink.com.