You want meeting notes, but do not want to add another participant to the call. OGAD (Off Grid AI Desktop) Pro records meeting media on your Mac and creates a local transcript and summary afterward. It uses the audio your computer receives and your microphone, so no separate note-taking bot needs to join the meeting.
| Get OGAD for Mac | Desktop releases |
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The result is a record you can review after the call. You can focus on the discussion, then check the transcript for details you want to keep. Automatic notes still need review before you treat them as an accurate account.
How does a bot-free workflow work?
OGAD captures meeting screen content, system audio, and your microphone locally. After the recording is saved, speech recognition produces the transcript and a text model produces the recap. With Pro active and OGAD running, granting recording permissions enables automatic capture of detected supported calls. This version has no separate automatic-recording switch. Record meeting also gives you a direct starting point.
This does not make the recording invisible. Use the visible recording state and get the participants’ agreement before recording. A bot-free workflow changes how the notes are made, not the fact that a recording is taking place.
What do you need before your first call?
Use an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 13 or later, current OGAD Pro, recording permissions, and downloaded local speech and text models. Screen/system-audio access captures the call side; microphone access captures you.
Prepare a local transcription model through Models > Transcription, then select Use. Select a downloaded local text model through Models > Text for summaries. Complete Pro activation and downloads while connected.
The online meeting still uses its platform’s normal network connection. Local notes avoid an additional cloud AI transcription path when all relevant model selections are local.
Getting started
- Open Settings > Setup & health > System permissions. Select Enable Screen Recording, allow OGAD in macOS settings, and relaunch if requested. Allow microphone access when prompted and select the local models described above.
- Join a short agreed test call in Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams.
- Open Meetings and check whether recording is active. Use Record meeting if needed.
- Record a short exchange with a sentence from each side.
- Select Stop, then wait for transcription and summary processing.
- Open the saved meeting and inspect Summary, Transcript, and playback.
The expected result is a saved record with both sides audible and represented in the text. Check this before using the setup for a longer call. A visible recording timer alone does not prove that both audio sources were captured correctly.
What can the automatic summary do for you?
It can give you a starting recap of the discussion and the decisions present in the transcript. Use it to find what needs checking: a date, an owner, or the exact wording of an agreement.
Compare those details with the transcript and recording. Speech errors can reach the summary, and the text model can infer a decision that was only proposed. The automatic recap also processes a limited transcript span, so review later parts of a long call separately.
The recorder’s broad microphone-versus-call distinction does not establish who each remote speaker is. Verify a person’s name or an assigned action before you share it.
What should you do when the call ends?
Select Stop in OGAD. The default Keeps recording when away setting means leaving the call window is not a guaranteed stop action. Check that the visible recording state has ended.
If a transcript is missing, look for Retry transcription after confirming that the local speech model is ready. Re-transcribe can process a saved recording again with the current model, replacing its transcript and summary. Export a copy first if you want to retain the previous version.
Save the transcript, audio, or video separately
Open the saved meeting in Meetings. Its export controls let you choose Transcript, Audio, or Video, then save the selected file to a location you choose.
| Export control | Saved result |
|---|---|
| Transcript | A text file for editing or searching elsewhere |
| Audio | An M4A audio copy extracted from the recording |
| Video | An MP4 copy with video and audio |
The transcript must exist for its text export. Audio and Video need the retained, usable meeting media. If the recording is missing or damaged, exporting the text does not recreate it.
Open a saved copy to check it before sharing. Choose Audio when you need to listen without distributing screen images; inspect the audio too, because spoken content can still be private. These are manual exports, not automatic uploads or messages.
Where do the notes go next?
Review them in Meetings and use Transcript to export a text copy when needed. That export does not automatically email or publish the notes. You choose how to use it.
Keep remote model selections and external sharing in mind. The local capture and model path described here does not imply that every feature or exported copy stays on one device.
Download OGAD, prepare Pro and the local models, then make one short recording without a bot participant. Check both voices and the saved summary before relying on it for your next meeting.