Private meeting notes without cloud recording. Softspoken.

Method 1: write or type the notes yourself

This method needs no software. You listen, and you write down what was decided, what has to happen next and who will do it. Nothing is recorded, so there is no audio to keep safe.

It costs you two things. You cannot write everything down and take a full part in the meeting at the same time, so the notes hold what you had time to catch. And typed notes are only as private as the app you type them into. Check where it saves its files: if that is a cloud account, your notes are kept there too.

It is the right method when someone in the meeting would rather not be recorded, or when you only need the outcome and not the discussion.

Method 2: record locally, transcribe later

Your computer can record a meeting by itself, with no notetaker involved. Turning the recording into text is a second step, and the notes are private only if that step happens on your computer too.

Record with the app that comes with your computer: Voice Memos on a Mac, or Sound Recorder on Windows 11. Both record through a microphone, which suits a meeting in a room. On a call they hear only what the microphone hears: with headphones on, that is your side alone.
Keep the recording out of the cloud. On a Mac, Voice Memos is one of the apps that can save to iCloud, and with it turned on your recordings appear on every device signed in to your Apple Account. To keep them on the Mac, open System Settings, click your name, click iCloud, click See All next to Saved to iCloud, and turn Voice Memos off. On Windows 11, Sound Recorder keeps its recordings inside the app, so uninstalling the app deletes them. Wherever you save a copy, check that the folder is not one your computer copies to a cloud drive.
Transcribe the recording on your computer. On a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 15 or newer, Voice Memos can show a transcript, though not in every country or region. Apple's guide to it does not say where the transcription is done. Microsoft's guide to Sound Recorder describes recording, not transcription, so use a separate program. Free, open-source speech-to-text programs run on a Mac or a Windows computer, and once you have downloaded a speech model they need no connection. Some are started by typing a command, so expect a little setting up.
Write the notes from the transcript. If you paste it into an online AI assistant to have it summarised, the transcript goes to that assistant's service.

When the transcription runs on your computer and you write the notes yourself, every step of this method stays there. It is also the slowest of the three: the transcript arrives after the meeting, and the notes after that.

Method 3: a notetaker on your own computer

A meeting notetaker does the second method's work for you: it records the meeting and writes the transcript. Recording a meeting without a bot is common now, and several notetakers do it. Where they differ is the next step. Most send the audio to a server to be transcribed. Several say they do not keep the audio once the transcript is written, which answers how long it is kept. Where it is transcribed is a separate question, and it decides whether the audio leaves your computer.

Here is how a meeting goes with Softspoken.

Join the waitlist. Softspoken is in closed beta, and the waitlist is how invitations go out. It runs on an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 15 or newer, and on a 64-bit Windows computer. Recording and transcription need no account.
Open it and allow the microphone. On a Mac, also allow screen recording when asked: Softspoken uses it for the call's audio only and stores no picture of your screen.
Let it download its speech model for meetings, once, the first time it is needed. That step needs a connection.
Open your call as usual, in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or any other meeting app, and start a recording in Softspoken. It records your microphone and the call's own audio as two separate channels, so no bot joins and nothing appears in the participant list. For a meeting in a room, put the laptop on the table and it records through the laptop's microphone.
Stop when the meeting ends. A speech model on your computer writes the transcript, and no audio is uploaded at any point. You keep the transcript as an ordinary file on your own disk, and by default the recording is deleted once your notes are written.
Choose whether AI writes a summary. With Softspoken AI, the transcript text for that step is processed in Australia and is not kept. On a paid plan you can use your own Anthropic or AWS account instead, and the text goes straight to that provider. Or leave AI off and keep the full transcript. Audio is never sent.

Once the speech model is on your computer, recording and transcription keep working with no connection. Our guide to on-device transcription explains how it works, and what to ask before you choose.

What stays on your computer with each method

For each method, ask where the meeting is recorded, where the speech becomes text, and where the notes are kept.

Writing the notes yourself. Nothing is recorded and nothing is transcribed. The notes are kept wherever the app you type into keeps them.
Recording, then transcribing later. The recording is on your computer, unless a cloud setting copies it away. The speech becomes text on your computer if the program you use runs there. The notes are your own files.
A notetaker on your own computer. With Softspoken, the meeting is recorded and transcribed on your computer, and the transcript and your notes are files on your own disk. Text from your meetings leaves your computer only when you send it: to the AI layer for a summary, or to an AI tool of your own that you connect to your meetings. Audio never does.

Our guide to private AI notetakers puts similar questions to six notetakers, and sets Softspoken beside them.

What this guide says about other products, Apple's and Microsoft's recorders included, was read on their own websites on 23 October 2026.

Tell the room

The second and third methods record the people you meet with. Softspoken shows nothing in the call: no bot joins, and the others see no notice from it. So telling them is up to you, before you start.

Recording laws differ between Australian states and between countries. Our answer to Do I need to tell people I'm recording? says where we stand, with a line you can say at the start of a meeting. The terms of use set out what you agree to when you record with Softspoken.

If anyone would rather not be recorded, write the notes yourself.

Which method for which meeting

Is it short, or would someone rather not be recorded? Write the notes yourself.
Is it in a room, with time to spare afterwards? Record it with your computer's own app, and transcribe it on your computer later.
Is it one of many calls and meetings in your week? Use a notetaker that transcribes on your computer. Softspoken handles calls and rooms alike, and writes the transcript for you.

How to take private meeting notes without cloud recording