Otter.ai
Otter.ai automatically joins your Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls, records them, and produces real-time transcripts with AI-generated summaries and action items. Stop taking notes during meetings forever.
How to Get the Most Out of Otter.ai
Enable OtterPilot to Join Meetings Automatically Without Setup
Connect Otter to your Google or Microsoft calendar and enable OtterPilot. It automatically joins every scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams meeting without you doing anything — joins as a participant, records the audio, and has a summary and action items ready in your Otter dashboard within minutes of the meeting ending. You never need to remember to start a recording again.
Chat with Your Meeting Transcripts to Extract Specific Information
After a meeting, open the transcript and use Otter's AI chat to ask specific questions: "What was the final decision on the launch date?" or "What did [person] commit to doing?" Otter retrieves the exact moment from the transcript with a timestamp, so you can verify context. This is dramatically faster than searching through a full transcript for a specific point.
Share Meeting Highlights Instead of Full Recordings
After a meeting, use Otter's highlight reel feature to select the 3-5 most important moments from the transcript. Share the highlight link with stakeholders who didn't attend — they get the key decisions and context in under 5 minutes rather than a 60-minute recording. For executive stakeholders and cross-functional collaborators, this curated summary dramatically increases the likelihood that people actually engage with meeting outcomes.
Our Take
Otter.ai is the most approachable meeting transcription tool — the automatic calendar integration and clean summary format make it easy to adopt without changing any existing workflows. For individuals and small teams, it's the best starting point. Fireflies.ai offers stronger CRM integrations and more advanced search across meeting archives, making it better for sales teams. Both tools have similar transcription accuracy; the choice between them usually comes down to whether CRM integration or simplicity is more important for your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
✓ Pros
- Automatic meeting join and recording
- Real-time transcription
- AI summaries and action items
- Integrates with Zoom, Meet, Teams
- Searchable transcript archive
✗ Cons
- 300 min/month limit on free plan
- Accuracy drops with accents
- Privacy concerns with recording
- Storage limits on lower plans