Record your first meeting

To record your first meeting, tap the microphone button on the home screen, let the conversation run, and stop when it ends. Canto uploads the audio, transcribes it with speakers separated, and writes structured notes — usually within a few minutes of stopping.

Step 1: Start recording

1. Open Canto and tap the large microphone button. On iOS and Android it sits at the bottom of the home screen; on the web it's the Record button.
2. Grant microphone access if this is your first recording.
3. Place the phone or laptop on the table, close to the people speaking. Placement matters more than anything else — see How do I get the best audio quality?

While recording you can type a title and notes, and drop bookmarks at moments you want to find later — see Add bookmarks and notes while recording. There is no live transcript during the recording; transcription starts after you stop.

Step 2: Stop when the meeting ends

Tap End on iOS or Stop on Android and the web. The recording appears at the top of your library and moves through Uploading, Processing, and Transcribing before it shows Ready. A typical hour-long meeting is ready in a few minutes; you can close the mobile app while it works, but a web recording needs its tab open until the upload finishes.

If you started recording by mistake, choose Discard instead — the audio is deleted and nothing is transcribed.

Step 3: Read the transcript and notes

Open the recording once it's Ready:

• The Summary view has an overview, key points, and decisions; Action items lists every commitment with owner and deadline. See What's in a Canto summary?
• The Transcript tab shows who said what, split by speaker. Tap any line to play the audio from that moment. Speakers get generic labels at first — see Rename speakers in a transcript
• Canto also names the recording automatically if you didn't type a title.

Transcription detects the spoken language on its own — you don't set one, and mixed-language meetings work.

Step 4: Ask questions

Use the Chat tab to ask about the recording — "what did we decide about pricing?", "draft a follow-up to the client". Answers are grounded in this transcript, so the AI cites what was actually said rather than inventing detail. Once you have a few recordings, you can also ask questions across all of them from the home screen — see Ask questions across all recordings

What counts against my free minutes?

Every transcribed minute of audio. The free plan includes 100 min / mo per month; recording itself has no such cap. See How long can a recording be?