Privately Recording Meetings

Groupthink can take meeting notes privately through the desktop app.

Summary

• Instead of the visible notetaker bot joining your call, the desktop app captures the conversation locally on your computer. Nothing appears in the meeting, other participants do not see Groupthink, and the resulting notes and transcript stay private to you.
• Heads up: Private capture requires an active trial or paid plan, the same as the visible notetaker. Without one, Groupthink will not start taking notes.
• Heads up: Private capture runs in the Groupthink desktop app. On the web, choosing Private with App opens a prompt to download the desktop app, because the web app cannot record privately.
• Set it as your default or start it on a single meeting. See Turning On Private Capture.
• Signing out, why a meeting got no notes, and the desktop app question are in Reference.

Overview

Private capture is the alternative to the visible Public with Bot notetaker:

• No bot in the call. Groupthink records through your desktop app, so nothing joins your Meet, Zoom, or Teams call and other participants do not see Groupthink.
• Private by default. The notes and transcript are visible only to you.
• Same automatic output. You still get a transcript, notes filed against your agenda, and a recap after the meeting ends, just like the visible notetaker.

On a Mac, the recording stays on your Mac. The app saves the audio on your computer while it records, and it does not upload the recording to Groupthink. The transcript is made while the meeting runs: the app sends the audio to a transcription service as you talk, and nothing reads the saved recording afterwards. Once a recording is more than 7 days old, the app deletes it from your Mac when it starts, and about once a day while it stays open, or sooner if you clear it yourself. See Recordings on This Mac below. On Windows, the app does not save a recording file.

Note: This is how Groupthink for Mac works from version 1.0.304. An older build uploads the recording to Groupthink after the meeting, and Groupthink deletes an uploaded recording within about a day. See Groupthink Desktop App for how to update.

Warning: It is your responsibility to comply with the recording laws that apply to you and the people on your call.

Requirements

Private capture runs in the Groupthink desktop app, so you need the app installed and running.

1. Install the Groupthink desktop app. See Groupthink Desktop App for download links and setup steps for your computer.
2. When the app prompts you, grant the system permissions it needs to capture audio.

On the web, you cannot choose Privately Take Notes as your default. Its card says private recording is only available in the desktop app and offers a Download button. Open Groupthink in the desktop app to choose it.

Turning On Private Capture

There are two ways to use private capture.

Option 1: Set it as your default

Choose private capture once and it applies to your future meetings. This setting lives in Today > Calendar & booking, under the heading How should Groupthink attend your meetings?

Select Privately Take Notes. Groupthink will record privately through the desktop app, no bot will join your calls, and your notes, transcript, and summary stay private to you.

Make this choice in the desktop app. On the web the option cannot be selected, and its card offers a Download button for the desktop app instead.

To attend scheduled meetings this way, connect your Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar first so Groupthink can see your meetings and their conferencing links.

Option 2: Start it on a single meeting

You can also turn on private capture for one meeting at a time.

• From a meeting agenda, click Start Notetaker and choose Private with App. Groupthink will record that meeting locally on your desktop.
• On Today, or on a later day's calendar, click Add Notetaker on a meeting and choose Add Invisible Note Taker to capture it privately through the desktop app.

An event on Today that Groupthink reads as in person and that has no video link, such as a dinner at a restaurant, shows the place and an It's a call link instead of Add Notetaker. To capture it privately, click It's a call to bring Add Notetaker back, or open its agenda, click Start Notetaker and choose Private with App.

On the web, Private with App opens a prompt to download the desktop app instead of starting a recording. Add Invisible Note Taker sets the meeting up for private capture from the web or the app; the recording itself happens in the desktop app.

Muting Your Mic During a Recording

While the desktop app is recording a meeting, you can mute your own mic from two places:

• On the meeting page. A Mute mic button sits above the live transcript. Click it and the button changes to Unmute mic. Next to it, the page shows "Your mic is muted. The call is still being recorded."
• In the Groupthink menu in your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows). Choose Mute My Mic. A check mark appears next to it while you are muted. Choose it again to unmute.

The two controls stay in step, so you can mute in one place and unmute in the other.

Each new recording starts with your mic unmuted.

If you hold the fn key to use Voice Dictation during a recording, and your mic is not muted, the page shows "Your mic is paused while you dictate." for as long as you are dictating. If you had already muted your mic, the page keeps showing that it is muted, and it stays muted afterwards.

If you do not see the Mute mic button while recording, you may be on an older version of the desktop app. See Groupthink Desktop App for how to update.

What You Get

Private capture produces the same things as the visible notetaker, kept private to you:

• A full transcript of the conversation.
• Notes filed against the items on your agenda.
• A recap with topics, decisions, and follow-ups once the meeting ends.

The agenda is visible only to you, because a private recording lands on an agenda that has only you on it. That is where the privacy comes from, not from any badge on the page.

You can tell a private meeting from a shared one by the chip on its card, in your calendar, in the feed and on the meeting itself: Private (hover: Private Recording) versus Shared (hover: Shared Bot Notes). In a narrow window the chip shows only an icon: ✨ for Private, 🤖 for Shared.

The 📝 Your private notes label is not that indicator. It appears on the notes box of every agenda, including fully shared ones, and it labels that box (your own scratchpad, which nobody else can read), not the meeting around it. Do not read it as "this meeting is private."

Switching Between Private and Shared

You can switch a meeting between private and shared capture from the meeting's three-dot menu on your calendar. Choose Swap to Invisible Note Taker to go private, or Swap to followed by your notetaker's name, Joining and your conferencing provider (for example Swap to Dana Lee's notetaker Joining Zoom) to go shared, then confirm in the dialog (Switch to Private Notes? or Switch to Shared Notes?). For a recurring meeting, you can apply the change to a single event or the whole series.

Two things to know before you switch:

• Switching to private removes everyone else. The meeting's agenda becomes private to you, and all other users immediately lose access to it and to its past and future notes.
• Switching to shared starts fresh. Your private agenda stays private, and a new blank shared agenda is created. If you want anything from your private notes in the shared one, move it over yourself.

For more on private versus shared notes, see Private vs. Shared Notes.

Recordings on This Mac

The Mac app shows the audio files it is still holding on your computer. Open Settings, go to Capture, and find the card called Recordings on this Mac. The list of recordings only shows in the desktop app on a Mac. On the web, the card tells you to open Groupthink on your Mac. On Windows, it says nothing is stored on the computer, so there is nothing to clear.

The card reads "While Groupthink takes notes, it writes the meeting's audio to this Mac. The recording stays only on this Mac and is deleted after 7 days. This is what is on disk right now."

Below that, it shows how much space the recordings take, how many there are, the date of the oldest one, and the folder they are kept in. Every recording stays in this list until it is deleted. The app removes recordings that are more than 7 days old when it starts, and about once a day while it stays open. When there are none, the card reads Nothing stored on this Mac.

To remove them sooner, click Clear recordings now. The card asks you to confirm, and says: "These recordings are only on this Mac, and deleting them here is permanent. Your notes and transcripts in Groupthink are not affected." Click the delete button, which names the number, for example Delete 2 recordings, or click Cancel. A recording that is in use, such as a meeting you are recording right now, is not removed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can other people see my private notes?

No. A private recording lives on an agenda that has only you on it, so nobody else can open the meeting, its transcript, or its recap.

Be careful not to read this the other way round. Access is decided by who is on the agenda, not by how the meeting was captured. If people are on an agenda, they can read it whether the notes came from the desktop app or the bot. Check the agenda's people list when it matters. See Note Access and Permissions.

The 📝 Your private notes label is not the signal for any of this. It sits on the notes box of every agenda, shared ones included, and only means that that box is yours alone.

Does Groupthink keep my audio?

No. On a Mac, the recording of a private capture is saved on your Mac and is not uploaded to Groupthink. Once it is more than 7 days old, the app deletes it from your Mac when it starts, and about once a day while it stays open, and you can delete it sooner in Settings, under Capture, on the Recordings on this Mac card. On Windows, no recording file is saved. What Groupthink keeps is the transcript and the notes.

This applies to Groupthink for Mac from version 1.0.304. An older build uploads the recording after the meeting.

Is anything visible to other people on the call?

No. With private capture, no bot joins the call and your notes stay private to you.

Reference

What happens to a recording if I sign out?

If you click Sign out in the desktop app while it is recording, the recording stops. What was recorded up to then is handled the same way as when you stop the recording yourself. If the app signs you out by itself, a recording that is already running keeps going. See Signing out.

Why did private capture not take any notes?

A few things have to be in place: the Groupthink desktop app needs to be installed and running, you need an active trial or paid plan, and private capture has to be turned on, either as your default setting or on the specific meeting.

Do I need the desktop app?

Yes. Private capture records locally through the Groupthink desktop app. Without it, Private with App opens a prompt to download the app, and Privately Take Notes cannot be chosen on the web. See Groupthink Desktop App.

Getting Help

Questions about private capture, or running into trouble? See Troubleshooting Private Meeting Recording, or email support@groupthink.com.