Google Meet, written up while you talk.
Connect Google Calendar and the notetaker asks to join the Meet calls you chose. Let it in and it stays for the call, then hands back a transcript and notes.
How it joins
The notetaker requests to join like any other participant and appears in the people panel once it is let in.
Meet has the strictest posture of the three platforms towards guest bots, and it is worth knowing that before you rely on it. Google puts third-party participants behind a prompt that describes them as a potential risk, and the host has to admit them. That prompt appears for each meeting rather than being a one-time approval, so a recurring call means a recurring click. Everything after that point is the same as the other platforms.
Two ways to start
- From the calendar. Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, then switch the notetaker on for a meeting or for a whole recurring series. It joins on its own from then on.
- From a link. Paste a join URL and the notetaker goes to that meeting, which is the quicker path for a call that is not in your calendar or that someone else organised.
What you get afterwards
- A transcript with real speaker names, matched from the platform's own participant timeline rather than guessed from the audio
- Notes with the agenda checked off, decisions, action items and open questions, written in the language you set
- The meeting's calendar context attached, so the summary knows what the meeting was supposed to be about
- Search and chat across every meeting you have recorded, not just this one
- Sharing with a folder, so the people who need the notes get them without being in the call
Recording is announced, not hidden
The notetaker is a visible participant with a name you choose, in the list for the whole call, admitted by whoever runs the meeting. That is the opposite of a covert recording, and it is deliberate. It does not replace telling people what the recording is for, which is a legal question rather than a product one.
Questions
Why does Google warn about the notetaker before it joins?
Google routes third-party participants through a review prompt that flags them as a potential risk, and the host admits them from there. It applies to guest bots generally rather than to Canto specifically. The practical effect is that someone has to admit the notetaker on each call, so it is worth telling whoever hosts a recurring meeting to expect it.
Does the notetaker need a Google Workspace account?
No. It joins through the meeting's join link as a guest. You connect your own Google Calendar so Canto can see which meetings you have and find their join links, which is a separate permission from anything in Meet itself.
Can it join a Meet call that is not on my calendar?
Yes, by pasting the join link. Meet links have a recognisable form, and Canto also reads the invite description and location fields for calls where the link was pasted into the body rather than attached properly.
What language does it transcribe in?
It detects the language automatically and handles 99 of them, including calls that switch language mid-sentence. The notes are written in whichever language you set in your account, which does not have to be the language of the call.
Send it to your next meeting.
300 minutes a month, free forever. Connect a calendar, or paste a link and watch it join.