Dictating during a meeting with Notetaker

Last updated: November 4, 2026

Available on: Mac, Windows

Dictate into a text field without stopping Notetaker. Other participants keep being captured and transcribed while you dictate, and your dictated words don't enter the meeting transcript.

Before you start

Finish onboarding before recording, including after a reinstall, Restart Onboarding, Reset Account or signing in on a new device. Until then, starting Notetaker shows "Finish setup to use Notetaker" and meeting-detection prompts stay hidden; existing synced meetings still open read-only. Notetaker never starts on its own.

Complete the microphone and system-audio checks in Notetaker setup. System audio is required to start recording and capture other participants, and unsupported system audio prevents recording.

Note: If you see "System audio turned off", Turn on system audio opens OS permission settings rather than an in-app toggle; in the meeting banner, choose Turn on, then restart the meeting. On Mac, the permission pane is Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. If setup shows permission denied, use Open Settings, and restart Flow if granting permission requires an app restart.

Dictate during the meeting

  1. Finish any active dictation.

  2. Start a meeting recording in Notetaker. Flow waits for dictation that is already stopping; "Microphone is busy with dictation" appears only if dictation remains active afterward.

  3. Select your destination text field.

  4. Dictate using your dictation shortcut.

  5. Stop or cancel dictation with the Flow bar when finished.

Note: While dictation is actively listening, a warning appears at 19 minutes. At 20 minutes, Flow stops dictation and shows "Transcription session ended." for about 10 seconds. Recover text retries the last transcription; it doesn't resume dictation.

What to expect

  • Microphone turn-taking: Dictation cannot begin until Notetaker releases the microphone, and Flow returns it to the meeting when dictation stops, cancels or errors, unless microphone capture fails.

  • Transcript marker: One Dictated marker is added at the start of each dictation, not when you stop or cancel; it remains when you reopen the meeting, and your speaker label stays the same.

  • Microphone choice: Notetaker uses the system-default microphone, regardless of your dictation microphone preference.

  • Flow bar during a meeting: Clicking its body opens the meeting note instead of starting dictation; Stop Notetaker stops meeting recording, like Stop in Notetaker.

If your mic doesn't resume after dictating

Warning: If the microphone fails to return after dictation, the meeting continues with system audio only, so your voice is missing from that stretch. Flow shows "Microphone unavailable — stop and resume the meeting to retry."

Microphone loss unrelated to dictation can also leave a running meeting recording only system audio. Flow restarts an audio source that stops sending audio, so your voice often resumes on its own within about half a minute. If audio still doesn't return, the Flow bar shows "Notetaker isn't getting any audio" with Restart Flow and Dismiss. The card stays until audio returns, the meeting ends or you dismiss it; if dictation or another notification covers it, it comes back about 10 seconds later.

If your voice is still missing:

  1. Select Stop in Notetaker.

  2. Wait for saving to finish and Resume to become available. While saving, Resume is disabled and shows "Finishing up…". If a resume attempt reports that saving is still finishing, wait and try again; extra clicks while a resume is pending count as one attempt.

  3. Select Resume in the same meeting; recording continues with the earlier transcript intact.

  4. Speak without dictating; if your words appear in the meeting transcript, microphone recording has resumed.

  5. Review the earlier transcript for gaps in your own speech.

If your voice is still missing after resuming

Check any microphone notice for a different cause:

  • "We might not be capturing your words": Flow names the microphones used by Flow and your meeting app. Use Open settings to match your system mic to the meeting app's mic; Don't show again dismisses future mismatch notices.

  • "No sound from [your mic] for the past 3 minutes": Check the device and mute setting through Microphone settings. The notice can escalate to "Still there? Notetaker isn't hearing anything". Ignore suppresses further mic-silence notices for that recording.

If Resume is missing

Resume can be hidden for a deleted transcript or an exhausted recording-length limit; the length restriction applies only when Flow can determine the recorded duration.

For older meetings with a refined transcript, missing, empty, unreadable or expired local audio can also prevent resuming. Those audio checks don't block a meeting still paused in the current app session, or one without a refined transcript.

Local audio is kept for 7 days by default, which also sets the window for resuming older recordings, and that window can vary. If a meeting never finished processing, its local audio is kept for 30 days so support can help recover the recording — that longer window is for recovery only and doesn't extend how long you can resume.

If Resume is rejected

A visible Resume button does not guarantee success: a different meeting recording, a recording still being saved or audio that cannot be reopened can prevent resuming.

Some failures show "Couldn't resume: …" with Record as new meeting for 10 seconds. That creates a separate meeting; it does not recover or continue the old one. Other failures have no action button, and some refusals show no resume-error notification.

Still need help?

Contact support if Stop → Resume doesn't restore your voice. Include your platform, microphone, the exact message and the steps you tried.