Most people meet GetNotes with one fair question: how does an app write my meeting notes without a bot sitting in a call? It's a fair thing to ask, because every other AI notetaker works by joining a video call — and GetNotes deliberately doesn't.
This is the honest, no-jargon version of what happens between the moment you press record in a room and the moment clean minutes land in your hands. Four steps, and nothing hidden.
The 30-second version
You open GetNotes in your phone's browser, press record, and set the phone on the table. When the meeting ends, you tap stop. A minute or so later you have a speaker-labelled transcript and structured minutes — a summary, the decisions, and the action items with owners — ready to copy, share as a link, or export.
That's it. No app to install, no bot to invite, no laptop open. The rest of this post is simply what each of those steps is doing under the hood.
Step 1 — Record the room
GetNotes runs in the mobile browser, so there's nothing to download. You start a recording the way you'd start a voice memo, and your phone's microphone captures the room. The best results come from putting the phone flat in the middle of the table — it hears everyone, including the person who always mumbles from the far end.
Because we capture the room directly, GetNotes works for the meetings a call-bot can't reach: a client across a table, a standup at a whiteboard, a site visit, a lecture. There's no meeting link involved, so there's nothing for a bot to join — and nothing you have to set up in advance.
Already have a recording? You can also upload an existing audio file — a voice memo, a dictaphone clip — and it goes through the exact same pipeline as a live recording.
Step 2 — Transcribe it, and label who said what
Once the audio is in, GetNotes transcribes every word. Two things happen here that matter more than raw text.
First, speaker labels. GetNotes separates the different voices and attributes each line, so the transcript reads like a conversation — and so an action item ends up next to the person who actually agreed to it, not floating in a wall of text.
Second, the language is detected automatically — you never pick one from a menu. GetNotes handles 90+ languages, and it's built for the way real meetings actually sound: half a sentence in Urdu, Hindi or Arabic and half in English. Tools tuned for English video calls tend to fall apart on that mid-sentence switching; this is a first-class case for us, not an afterthought.
Step 3 — Write the minutes
A transcript is useful, but nobody re-reads forty minutes of dialogue. So the transcript is passed to an AI writer that distills it into the minutes a great chief-of-staff would produce:
- Summary — the meeting in a few bullets
- Decisions — what was actually settled
- Action items — each task with an owner and a deadline where one was stated
- Key discussion points — the context behind the decisions
Step 4 — Translate and share
By default the minutes come out in the meeting's own language, so an Arabic meeting produces Arabic minutes. You can also choose English per meeting if that's what your team standardises on.
And when a meeting needs to travel across languages, you can translate the finished minutes into any of 90+ languages in one click and share that version with its own link. So the same Arabic meeting can go to the local team as Arabic minutes and to head office as English — from one recording.
Sharing itself is a tap: copy the notes, send a public link, or export a PDF or Markdown file. The person you send it to needs no account and no app.
What happens to your recording
This is the part people care about most, so here's the straight answer. Your recordings and notes are kept in private storage tied to your account, protected so that only you can reach them. Your audio is processed for one purpose — to produce your transcript and your notes — and nothing else.
You stay in control of retention: you can delete any meeting, audio and all, at any time. Our one piece of practical advice isn't technical — it's courtesy: tell the room you're recording before you press record. It's good manners, and in many places it's also the law.
What it costs to try
Your first meeting is free — up to 30 minutes, no credit card — so you can run GetNotes on a real meeting before deciding anything. After that, Pro is $19/month for unlimited meetings, up to three hours per recording, with a fair-use cap of 25 hours of audio a month.
That's the whole system: capture the physical room, get minutes people actually read, in the language they read them in.
Frequently asked
Do I need to install an app or add a bot to a call?
No. GetNotes runs in your phone's web browser — you open a tab, press record, and set the phone on the table. There's no app to download and no meeting bot, which is exactly why it works for in-person meetings that have no video-call link.
How does GetNotes know which language the meeting is in?
It detects the spoken language automatically — you never select one. It supports 90+ languages and is built to follow speakers who switch language mid-sentence, such as Urdu, Hindi or Arabic mixed with English.
Can I get the minutes in a different language than the meeting?
Yes. By default the minutes are written in the meeting's own language, but you can translate the finished minutes into any of 90+ languages in one click and share that version with its own link — the original stays intact.
Is my meeting recording private?
Yes. Recordings and notes are stored privately and tied to your account, accessible only to you, and used solely to generate your transcript and notes. You can permanently delete any meeting — audio included — whenever you want.