AI TranscribeHow to turn a recording into meeting notes automatically on iPhone
Nobody reads a 40-minute meeting recording — and nobody should have to. The useful output of a meeting is half a page: what was decided, who does what, by when. That's exactly what you can generate from a recording.
Short answer: Record the meeting (or grab the Zoom/Teams recording file), transcribe it in AI Transcribe, then tap Create meeting notes — a purpose-built AI tool that structures the transcript into notes. Add Create a todo list for action items and Extract dates for deadlines. Total effort: a few taps.
The workflow
- Capture the audio.
- In-person meeting: record in the app (up to 2 hours), phone in the middle of the table. Get the room's consent.
- Online meeting: record on the platform, then import the downloaded file — audio or video, up to 3 hours. No meeting bot needs to join your call.
- Transcribe. The transcript arrives with speaker labels and timestamps, so "who committed to what" stays attached to a name and a minute-mark.
- Generate the notes. Run these tools on the transcript:
- Create meeting notes — structured summary of the discussion.
- Create a todo list — action items, pulled from the conversation.
- Extract dates — deadlines and follow-ups mentioned in passing.
- Share. Export as text or PDF, or copy straight into Slack, Notion or an email.
Live meeting-bot tools vs. record-and-transcribe
Tools like Otter join your video calls as a bot and transcribe live — great for teams with a heavy scheduled-meeting culture (see our comparison). The record-and-import approach wins when meetings are in person, ad hoc, or when a bot in the participant list isn't appropriate. It also works retroactively: any past recording becomes notes.
Frequently asked questions
Can it tell who said what? Yes — speaker labels are on by default. In a 4-person meeting the labels are reliable when people don't talk over each other constantly.
My meetings are in German / Portuguese / Cantonese. Transcription supports 32 languages with automatic detection; notes and summaries can be generated from any of them, and translated.
What about a 3-hour workshop? Import the recording afterwards (files up to 3 hours are supported). On the free tier, daily transcription time is capped at 1 hour; Pro (weekly or annual) raises it to 3 hours per day.
Is a recording enough, or should someone still take notes? Someone should still capture decisions the group makes off-audio (whiteboards, chat links). For everything spoken, the transcript is more complete than any human notetaker.