How to record a meeting on a Mac, in any app

Use the meeting app's own Record button if it lets you: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex all have one, and each tells everyone when it starts. For a FaceTime audio call or an iPhone call, Apple's Call Recording does the same. For a meeting in the room, Voice Memos is already on your Mac.

The catch is the “if”. Most of those buttons belong to the host, a paid plan or an admin's settings, and guests usually can't press them. When you need your own copy, the other route is to record the Mac itself: the Screenshot toolbar, or an app that captures your microphone and the Mac's sound. Those don't tell anyone, so asking is on you.

This page is the map, with a guide for each app. We make Koi, one of the Mac recorders, so read the Koi part with that in mind. The details about every other app come from their own help pages, checked October 16, 2026.

The full steps, and what to do as a guest, are in each guide:

• Record a Zoom meeting on a Mac: computer and cloud recording, Allow Record for participants, and Zoom's transcripts.
• Record Google Meet on a Mac: which Google accounts can, and why free Gmail can't.
• Record a Teams meeting on a Mac: the new Record menu, licenses, and why guests can't.
• Webex: hosts can record to the Mac, and Webex tells everyone the meeting is being recorded.
• FaceTime: Apple's Call Recording keeps the sound of a call. For video, record the screen with the call's sound, as in recording internal audio.

Some call apps have no recorder of their own, so the Mac's tools or a recording app are the only way:

• Slack's help pages describe AI notes for huddles, not a recording of them, so record the Mac's sound instead.
• WhatsApp's Mac app doesn't offer call recording, as far as its help pages show, so record the Mac's sound instead.
• On Discord, people use a recording bot like Craig in a server, or record the Mac's sound. Our internal audio guide shows how.

For a meeting around a table, the Mac's microphone does the work. Voice Memos records and can show a transcript, and Apple Notes records into a note, with a live transcript on a Mac with M1 or later.

• Record an in-person meeting on a Mac: Voice Memos, Notes and note takers that work in the room.
• Record a lecture on a Mac: from the recording to study notes and flashcards, and your school's rules.
• Apple Notes: its Record Audio button records into a note, with a transcript and a summary on a Mac with M1 or later.

Every Mac has a screen recorder. It works with any call app, because it records the screen, not the meeting:

1. Press Shift-Command-5.
2. Choose Record Entire Screen, Record Selected Window (macOS Tahoe 26 or later) or Record Selected Portion.
3. Click Options and pick a microphone for your own voice. On macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, also choose Include System Audio, for the other people.
4. Click Record. To stop, click Stop in the menu bar or press Command-Control-Esc.

The .mov lands on your desktop. Per Apple's how-to, Include System Audio is new in macOS 27. On Tahoe 26 and earlier you only get a microphone, so the other people are faint, or missing with headphones on. There is no transcript either way. For drivers like BlackHole and apps like OBS that capture the Mac's sound on older versions, see how to record internal audio on a Mac.

These capture your microphone and the Mac's sound themselves. Each comes with its own trade-off, per its own site. For note takers ranked side by side, see the best AI note takers for Mac.

• Audio Hijack, $69, records the sound of any app, with a long list of call apps it supports out of the box. Made for audio files, with an optional transcript made on your Mac.
• Piezo, $29, records FaceTime, Zoom and other call apps in one click, each side on its own channel. No transcript.
• OBS Studio is free and records the screen and the desktop sound, with plenty of settings to learn.
• Otter's desktop app and Granola AI take meeting notes from your computer's audio without a bot, transcribed in their cloud. See Koi vs Otter.ai and Koi vs Granola AI.
• MacWhisper transcribes on your Mac and, in Pro, records meetings and splits speakers. See Koi vs MacWhisper.

Koi's Record asks one question: what are you recording?

• Online call, for Zoom, Meet and Teams. Your microphone is You, what the Mac plays is Them, and the screen is filmed with both sides' sound. It needs the Screen Recording permission.
• In person, for a meeting, a class or a talk in the room. It hears your microphone alone, keeps the sound to play back, and films nothing.

1. Tap Fn + ⌃, or click Record on Koi's dock, and pick one. The menu bar has Record an Online Call and Record a Meeting in Person.
2. When Zoom, Meet or Teams starts using your microphone, the dock also asks "Record this call?". Nothing records until you click Record.
3. Tap the keys again, or click stop on the dock, when it's over.

Either way, the talk is transcribed on your Mac with Whisper as it goes and written onto a document in Recents, which opens when you stop. No bot joins, so it works the same whether you host or not. Then the document asks whether to summarize it. With a yes, the transcript's words go to Koi's AI, online, for a title, a short summary and your to-dos, and for a call, a follow-up email to open in Mail. Recordings are unlimited on every plan: Pro is $20 a month after a 3-day free trial that needs a card, and Lifetime is $59 for the first 25 buyers, rising to $199.

What it won't do: name each speaker (it's You and Them on a call, and plain paragraphs in person), transcribe recordings you already have, record by itself without asking, or run anywhere but a Mac on macOS 14 or later. On a recorded call it can also show the others' words in your language: see live translated captions.

It depends on where you and the others are. Some places need everyone's consent, others one person's. Workplaces and schools often add rules of their own. This isn't legal advice: check the law where you are, or ask whoever handles it at work.

The meeting apps build the telling in. Zoom asks participants to consent, Meet and Teams notify everyone, Webex needs everyone's consent before it records, and Apple plays a notice to both people on a recorded FaceTime or phone call. Recorders on your Mac, Koi included, don't. So:

• Ask at the start and wait for a yes.
• Ask again when someone joins late.
• If anyone says no, or the host has switched recording off, don't record.
• Keep the recording to the people who agreed to it.

• You're the host and a file is all you need? The app's own recording.
• You're a guest? Ask the host to record and share, or to give you permission where the app allows it.
• A FaceTime audio call or an iPhone call? Apple's Call Recording.
• A meeting in the room? Voice Memos, or Notes for a transcript in your note.
• A quick video of any call on macOS 27? The Screenshot toolbar.
• Both sides and notes on Zoom, Meet, Teams and in the room, from one app? Koi's Record, once everyone has said yes.