Notetaker settings, explained
Last updated: November 5, 2026
Available on: Mac, Windows — subject to plan, organization and account access.
Open Settings → Notetaker to adjust reminders, recording, Notepad, transcripts, the meeting-chat consent notice and sharing. You can also open it from a calendar reminder's caret (▾) → Notification settings.
Note: Personal subscriptions include Notetaker, including individual Business and Growth plans; on an organization's Business plan, your admin's early-access request unlocks it. Notetaker is hidden only when your admin has turned it off or your plan doesn't include it; otherwise it stays in the sidebar, hub, tray and menus and explains why recording is unavailable — for example your plan or device, or privacy and compliance rules such as Cloud Sync turned off for your account. When privacy or compliance rules block a note, Flow shows a recording-blocked message once for that meeting and nothing is recorded. Notetaker works alongside a signed personal or organization BAA, so you do not need to revoke your BAA to record meetings. To get access, contact your Wispr Flow admin or use request access on Notetaker's home page when it's offered; access applies to the account you're signed in to and takes effect immediately, with no restart.
Meeting detection
Setting | Default | What it does |
Notify before scheduled meetings start | Right before the meeting (15 seconds) | Choose Right before the meeting, 1 minute before, 2 minutes before, or Never. |
Show your next meeting in the menu bar (Mac only) | On | Shows the meeting name and countdown beside the Wispr Flow icon. |
Automatically detect any call | On | Asks to start a note when you join a call. |
Start Notetaker automatically (when available) | Off | Starts recording automatically for eligible detected calls. |
Maximum recording length | 2 hours | Choose 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours. |
Stop Notetaker when a call ends | On | Stops recording when Flow detects the call ended. |
Reminder timing and menu-bar visibility apply only to this device.
Note: With Automatically detect any call turned off, Flow still notices when you're on a call and offers once to turn detection back on. Accept it and detection resumes; decline it and the offer doesn't return on that device.
When reminders appear
Reminders require Flow running, sign-in, Notetaker access and organization-permitted calendars; plan, subscription or organization restrictions can block them. A recording or detection card for the same event suppresses its reminder; recording a different meeting does not.
Never turns off scheduled and snoozed reminders. Another timing re-enables reminders for eligible events, not missed ones; each event gets at most one initial scheduled reminder.
A reminder closes five minutes after the meeting starts, or five minutes after a late or snoozed reminder returns, and always by the meeting's end. Signing out, joining the meeting, disconnecting a calendar, clearing calendar data, a calendar-policy change, or the event being cancelled clears existing reminders and snoozes for good.
What the menu-bar setting changes
On Mac, Hide next meeting from menu bar changes the same setting. Turning it off removes only the title text, not the Flow icon or meeting menu, which includes Join meeting. The meeting listing and title disappear when Notetaker is off or blocked, or your organization disables calendars.
How auto-start works
The auto-start row appears only when available for your Notetaker; when hidden, your saved choice is unchanged. With detection off, auto-start is disabled and appears off, with “Turn on “Automatically detect any call” to use this”; your saved choice returns when detection is restored.
Auto-start requires a detected call in a supported meeting app; microphone use or joining alone isn't enough. Slack huddles count, in the Slack desktop app and in browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Arc and Dia, where the active tab using the microphone must be a recognized conference tab. Onboarding must be complete, Notetaker access and Cloud Sync requirements met, Microphone and System Audio permissions granted, and no other recording running.
Tip: You can also turn auto-start on or off from a meeting notification's caret (▾) menu, shown when auto-start is available to you and Automatically detect any call is on. It's the same setting as in Settings.
When a call is detected, the Meeting detected card gives you about 10 seconds before recording starts on its own:
Start now: click Start Notetaker, or press Enter or Space.
Pause the countdown: hover, hide or drag the card; it resumes where it left off.
Turn down this call: close the card with X or Esc (“Not now”), choose Join only, or cancel auto-start from the card's caret (▾) menu. Joining a meeting without Notetaker — from the card, the hub meeting row, the caret (▾) dropdown or a scheduled calendar reminder — also turns the call down.
Once you've turned a call down, the card doesn't come back for the rest of it; start a note yourself from the hub, the shortcut or the Flow Bar. Letting the card time out isn't the same as turning it down. A genuinely different meeting — a different meeting link or code, or a back-to-back calendar event that lines up only by time — gets its own card. A second call on the same calendar event starts a fresh note if Flow automatically ended that event's note more than 2 minutes earlier; rejoining within 2 minutes resumes the existing note.
Note: Opening the card's caret (▾) menu stops the countdown. Closing the card afterwards doesn't turn the call down, so the countdown can appear again if the same call is detected. To turn it down, use Join only or cancel auto-start from that menu.
Auto-stop and recovery
How auto-stop ends a recording
In the Zoom and Microsoft Teams apps, recording stops within a couple of seconds of leaving or ending the call — about 20–25 seconds if system audio such as a video with speech starts playing right after you leave. For browser calls in Chrome, Edge, Arc, Dia and other Chromium browsers, closing the meeting tab stops recording promptly. When Flow can't tell whether the call is still live — a fullscreen or background tab, vertical tabs, or a Teams or Zoom app window — it keeps recording and ends close to the auto-end time you've set.
Rejoining the call, choosing Keep recording, hovering the warning, changing audio devices, or your computer sleeping and waking all cancel a pending stop; on Mac, recent audio from other participants does too, while your own speech doesn't delay the stop. Once you've joined your next call, a pending stop runs even if another app is in front — only returning to the original meeting cancels it. Keep recording always takes priority and End recording always stops immediately.
Turning off Stop Notetaker when a call ends also turns off silence stops, silence warnings and time check-ins — but not maximum length limits or their warnings. Time check-ins skip active conversations, and the hour check-in is skipped for limits of one hour or less.
If recording ends early
A brief microphone interruption during a quiet moment — muting and unmuting, or switching input device — can end a recording early; choose Resume to carry on. Resume continues the same meeting and keeps the transcript recorded so far, waiting if the previous stretch is still being saved; extra clicks join the same resume rather than starting a second note. When a meeting ends with nothing replacing it, Notetaker stopped can offer Resume; otherwise use Notepad's Resume when it's available.
If Flow quits unexpectedly or your computer shuts down mid-meeting, the note finishes itself the next time you open Flow: the meeting is marked as ended and its transcript and summary are produced as usual.
Summaries after you resume
If a summary was already created for the first stretch of a resumed meeting, stopping for good adds the rest of the recording automatically: a complete transcript and summary replace the partial ones, the earlier summary stays on screen until the new one is ready, and shared links show the complete version once it arrives.
If you edited the summary yourself, your edits are kept and nothing is replaced automatically. Choose Update summary when you want the full version — Flow warns you first, because updating replaces your edits.
Recording limits and warnings
The 3 hours limit stops recording at about 2 hours 58 minutes, and pausing doesn't reset the allowance. Previously saved 4-hour or 6-hour choices now use 3 hours. Notepad or the Flow Bar warns you 5 minutes before limits of 1 hour or longer, or 2 minutes before the 30-minute limit, unless a silence-stop warning is already counting down.
Warning: If your computer sleeps, recording ends at that moment, so the saved audio and transcript match the end time shown.
To keep recording past the current limit:
Choose Yes in the warning to open Change auto-end time?, if it's offered.
Select a higher limit.
Choose Save before the current limit is reached.
Save extends the current recording, updates your saved preference and renews warnings. There's no extension at the highest limit, and a late or outdated selection reopens the warning without saving. Dismissing a warning only prevents repeats, and ignoring it never extends recording. If the allowance runs out, start a new recording — choose Record as new if offered.
While Notetaker is active
Setting | Default | What it does |
Don't show Notepad and Flow Bar in screen capture | Off | Hides Notepad from screenshots and screen shares, and the Flow Bar during recording. |
Show live transcript | On | Displays words as you record. |
Post a consent notice in the meeting chat | Off | Posts a short message in the meeting chat letting people know the meeting is being recorded. |
On Windows, screen-capture exclusion requires operating-system support. With live transcript off, Flow still captures audio and produces the refined transcript after you stop; changing it mid-meeting only changes the display, and turning it on during a recording that started without live transcription takes effect at your next meeting. Transcript corrections and speaker reassignment become available once the recording has ended.
How the consent notice works
Every Notetaker user can turn the consent notice on, whatever their plan; it's off until you turn it on in Settings → Notetaker. If your organization's admin requires it, it's turned on and locked for everyone in the organization and you can't switch it off.
If you're in an organization and several colleagues are recording the same meeting, only one notice is posted, so the chat doesn't fill with duplicates. If you're not in an organization, your own notice is posted for your recording.
Notepad
Setting | Default | What it does |
Notepad View | Open Notepad | Choose what happens when a note starts: Keep Notepad hidden, Open Notepad, or Open side by side. |
Triple tap <your dictation key> for Notetaker | On | Three quick dictation-key presses join a meeting or start Notetaker. |
Keyboard shortcut | Mac: Option + M | Starts Notetaker or joins your meeting. |
Triple tap applies only to this device. Change shortcut opens Shortcuts → Join meeting / start Notetaker.
Note: The shortcut, triple tap and the Flow Bar's triple-tap hint follow your own Notetaker access. Granted individually, they work even when your organization has Notetaker turned off; if your access has been removed, the shortcut and triple tap do nothing.
Warning: Reset to default restores every Flow shortcut, replacing your custom assignments. It can't restore shortcuts your organization blocks.
The three Notepad View options are:
Keep Notepad hidden: the note records behind the Flow Bar pill; click the pill to reattach Notepad with the live transcript.
Open Notepad: starting a note — by auto-detect, New recording, the homepage Notetaker widget, the shortcut, dictation-key gestures or the Flow Bar record disc — opens Notepad focused and already recording, so you can edit the title straight away.
Open side by side: opens the meeting on the left and Notepad on the right when you join, on Mac and Windows.
Starts from the tray, calendar Join and opening without recording always show Notepad. Closing Notepad during a meeting closes it straight away and keeps recording.
Recording in the background requires Cloud Sync, Microphone and System Audio permissions. When setup is still needed, Notepad opens visible with the setup step, even with Notepad View set to keep it hidden. If you see Notetaker isn't recording yet, choose Finish Setup.
Note: Starting Notetaker requires completing onboarding first. Until you finish it, the keyboard shortcut, triple tap, Flow Bar record disc, menu bar or tray, calendar auto-join and Notepad's Record button all open onboarding instead of recording; opening an existing synced meeting to read it still works. Reinstalling Flow or signing in on a new device each mean completing onboarding again.
System-audio setup on Mac
Granting Screen Recording requires restarting Flow; System Audio Recording Only does not. Systems that don't support it show an explanation with no setup action.
Side-by-side permission
On Mac, choosing Open side by side requests Accessibility access unless you've already granted it. If access isn't granted within 30 seconds, Notepad View reverts to your previous option and shows “Accessibility access is required for split-screen on join.”
Grant the requested Accessibility access.
Set Notepad View back to Open side by side if it reverted.
Granting access during the wait keeps the option selected; choosing another option cancels the wait.
On Windows, Open side by side saves immediately with no Accessibility setup. If the meeting window can't be positioned, the meeting and Notepad still open, just not side by side.
Sharing
Sharing appears only when you have options available. Link defaults and auto-sharing require sharing access, and your organization can narrow the link choices or hide the link-default setting; the auto-share picker appears only when note sharing is enabled for you.
Setting | Default | What it does |
Default for Notetaker links | — | Choose who can open Notetaker links. Transcripts are only visible to people you invite by email. |
Auto-share notes | Off | Shares notes once the meeting ends and its summary is ready. |
The link default applies when you copy a link, not when a note is created. Link choices are Private, Shared with team (requires an organization) and Anyone with the link (requires public-sharing permission). A saved choice your organization no longer allows becomes Private. Team and public links don't include transcripts.
Auto-share recipients and scope
Choose no one, all attendees, or @your-domain attendees; the picker applies to all meetings, and no one means no auto-sharing. The domain option appears only for team-eligible custom domains, matched exactly apart from capitalization; public domains aren't eligible, and losing eligibility falls back to no one.
Auto-sharing needs a calendar event and recipients; your own calendar entry, attendees who declined and attendees without an email address are excluded. If sharing partly fails, recipients already added keep their access. Auto-sharing does not change existing note visibility; when no visibility is configured, attendee auto-sharing uses invited-only access (Private).
Changing sharing for a single meeting
These controls appear only when available to you; they aren't available when your organization limits note sharing to the note's owner, or once a meeting has ended.
Hover an upcoming meeting row in Notetaker.
Choose the … meeting options button, left of Join.
Set Auto-share the notes for this meeting with the following group to No one, @your-domain or All attendees — a simple on/off switch if your account has no work domain. No one stops notes being shared with that meeting's attendees.
The popover applies to that meeting only and overrides the global audience for it; untouched meetings keep following global settings. Change default settings opens the matching setting in Settings → Notetaker. Changes apply right away; if a change can't be saved, Flow tells you and puts the choice back.
Still need help?
If a setting won't save, contact support with your platform, the setting, any message you saw and the steps you tried.