Nothing can join a conference room, so the bot-based notetakers mostly do not try. The recorder for a meeting in the room is the Windows laptop already open in front of you: Pithflow's In person mode records the microphone, uploads as it goes, and when you stop it writes a summary, the key points ranked by how many times each came up, the decisions, and the action items.
A notetaker that works by joining the call has nowhere to join when the meeting is a room. The workarounds people land on — start a Teams meeting with yourself and put the phone in the middle of the table, or record a voice memo and upload it somewhere later — are the reason a Microsoft Q&A thread titled "Transcribing in face to face meetings" exists at all. The honest tool for a room is a microphone and an app that treats that microphone as the whole meeting, which is what In person mode is.
It is also where most people still need real meeting minutes: the board meeting, the committee, the weekly with a client across the table. The notes come out in that shape already, with the decisions and the action items in their own sections. The one thing they cannot give you is who said what, so for formal minutes that need named attribution, treat the export as the raw material and put the names on yourself.
Distance is what loses words, not volume. Equal distance to everyone beats close to you and far from the person who talks least.
Most laptop microphones sit at the top of the screen or the front edge. A notebook or a coffee cup in front of it is the most common reason a recording sounds muffled.
Any USB or wireless microphone Windows recognises works. Pick it under Settings in Pithflow and it is used for meetings and dictation alike.
Before anything else. Pithflow shows nothing to anyone but you, and in the states that require everyone's consent, a room counts the same as a call.
One stream, your microphone. There is nothing else to choose.
The app shows a clock and a level meter. If the meter barely moves when someone speaks, move the laptop closer to them.
The notes land on the card within about a minute. The transcript is behind a toggle — unlabelled, because one microphone cannot honestly say who spoke.
Copy drops the notes on the clipboard for the follow-up email; Export writes a Markdown file.
On a video call Pithflow gets two physically separate streams — your microphone and what the computer plays — so it can honestly label them Me and Them. In a room there is one stream with everyone in it. Labelling that "Me" would be a lie, so the transcript is left plain. The notes do not need the labels: the key points are ranked by how many separate times each was raised, whoever raised it.
A single free recording stops at 15 minutes, and meeting audio counts toward the same weekly free allowance the dictation side uses. In practice that is one real stand-up, one client check-in, or the first quarter of a longer meeting — enough to see whether the ranked notes are worth it on your own conversations. Pro and Team have no per-meeting cap. Details on the pricing page.
| In person | Video call | |
|---|---|---|
| What is recorded | Your microphone | Your microphone + what the PC plays |
| Transcript labels | None | Me / Them |
| Headphones | Not needed | Recommended |
| Echo removal | Never — everything the mic heard was really said | Yes, if the call played through speakers |
| Notes | Same format: summary, key points ranked by mentions, decisions, action items | |
The laptop is already on the table
Tell the room, press record, read the ranked notes when it ends.
A conference table, yes, if the laptop is near the middle and people speak at normal volume. A long boardroom or a noisy café, less well — the far end gets thin. Any USB or wireless conference microphone that Windows sees as an input works the same way; pick it in Pithflow's settings.
No. An in-person recording is one microphone hearing everyone, and Pithflow does not pretend to tell the room apart — the transcript is unlabelled. Only video calls get Me / Them, because there the two sides arrive as physically separate streams.
Not with Pithflow — it is a Windows app. The laptop you already have open in the meeting is the recorder.
On the free plan, 15 minutes per meeting, within the weekly free allowance. Pro and Team have no per-meeting cap; an hour-long meeting uploads a minute at a time so nothing waits on one big file.
Yes, out loud, before you start. Pithflow shows no indicator to anyone but you. In the states that require everyone's consent, that applies in a conference room just as much as on a call.
The transcript will be messy at that spot, the same as any recording of a crowded room. The notes are written from the whole meeting, so a few overlapping seconds rarely change the ranked key points.
Yes. The language is detected from the audio and the notes are written in the language the meeting was held in.
No bot, because there is nothing for a bot to join.
Download free for Windows15-minute meetings free · no card · Pro removes the cap
