nchova
EN
Try it free

AI note taker, no bot

AI meeting notes, without a bot in the call.

Most AI note takers get your meeting by joining it: a Notetaker turns up in Zoom, Meet or Teams as one more participant, often on its own from your calendar, and the recording goes to its company’s cloud. nchova listens from your Mac instead, the way you do: it transcribes there, writes the notes when you hang up, and nobody joins.

Try nchova free for 30 days no card, no account

macOS 26 · Apple silicon Mac

In short

No bot
nothing joins the meeting: nchova hears what your Mac plays and what your microphone hears, in any call app.
No upload
the transcript is written on your Mac and the audio is never kept. The notes too, unless you choose your own Claude Code or Codex.
Free
transcripts and notes with Apple’s models, with no limit on minutes or meetings. Pro, €29.99 once, tells the voices apart and writes better notes.

A guest in the call, or nobody

A notetaker bot gets the meeting by joining it, as a participant everyone sees. nchova needs no seat: it is on your Mac, where the call already is.

How the others get into your meeting

The best-known note takers, from their own pages. Most now have a way in without the bot as well, through a desktop app; the audio still goes to their cloud.

Otter

its Notetaker joins Zoom, Meet and Teams as a participant, “[your name]’s Notetaker (Otter.ai)”, and can join every meeting in your calendar on its own. The desktop app records without it. Recordings are kept in its cloud, in the US.

Fireflies

“Fireflies.ai Notetaker” joins as a participant, always visible in the list, and can join from your calendar. Its desktop app can take notes from the computer’s audio, without the bot. Data is stored and processed in its cloud, in the US.

Fathom

the Fathom Notetaker joins your Zoom, Meet and Teams calls by itself once your calendar is connected. A mode without the bot is in beta, on Mac only. Recordings are kept, in the US.

tl;dv

its bot joins your scheduled meetings as an attendee, and asks to join even when you are not there. The desktop app records without it; the recordings go to your tl;dv library, hosted in the EU.

Read AI

Read Assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Meet as a participant, on its own once your calendar is connected. The desktop app can record the computer’s audio; data is stored on AWS, in Virginia.

Granola

no bot: like nchova, it takes the audio on your computer. But it sends it to its transcription provider in the cloud, then deletes it; the transcripts are kept on AWS, in the US.

Zoom, Teams and Meet

their own notes (AI Companion, intelligent recap, “Take notes for me”) need paid plans, are started by the host or people in their organisation, and everyone in the call is shown that they are on.

What happens on your Mac

The call takes the microphone, nchova asks once, and the transcript writes itself in a card only you can see: your microphone is “Me”, the call is everyone else.

The notes, when you hang up

Written around what you jotted down during the call: the topics, what was decided, who does what. Then ask the meeting: what did we decide, what do I have to do, write the follow-up.

Who writes the notes

You choose, in Settings › Notes. Only the last one leaves the Mac, and only if you pick it.

Apple Intelligence

on the Mac, free: short notes, the topics and the decisions.

Qwen3.5 4B or 9B pro

on the Mac too, downloaded once (2.7 or 5.7 GB): better notes, and nothing leaves the Mac.

Your Claude Code or Codex pro

the best notes, in seconds, with your own subscription: the transcript, never the audio, goes to Anthropic or OpenAI.

Meetings in a room, too

A bot needs a call to join. nchova only needs to hear: with the Mac on the table, a meeting in the room is transcribed like a call, offline, and its notes written when it ends. Start it from the menu bar, with Start meeting transcription.

With Pro, the voices are told apart, Voice 1, Voice 2…, and named from the voiceprints of the invitees, kept on your Mac.

When a bot is the better choice

If you want notes from meetings you cannot attend, a bot can go for you: tl;dv’s asks to join even when you are not there. nchova transcribes what your Mac hears, so you have to be in the call.

If the recording should belong to the team, with the video, shared in a workspace and sent on to a CRM, Otter, Fireflies and Fathom are built for that. nchova keeps each person’s meetings on their own Mac.

If you are not on a Mac, or want your notes on a phone, they run on Windows, on the web and on mobile. nchova is a Mac app, for Apple silicon and macOS 26.

Your next meeting, with notes

  1. Download nchova and open it. In the setup, under For meetings, connect the Calendar and press Ask now next to System audio: that is how nchova hears the others.
  2. Join your call as usual, in its app or in the browser. When nchova asks, click Transcribe.
  3. Jot a word or two in the card if you like. Hang up: the notes are written, and the meeting waits in Meetings (Fn+M).

Questions, out loud

00:00:04 You Do the others know nchova is transcribing?
00:00:09 nchova Nothing appears in the call, because nchova is not in it. Where the law, or your company, asks you to, tell the people you are talking to that you are transcribing.
00:00:27 You Is it really free?
00:00:32 nchova Yes: transcripts and notes with Apple’s models, in 10 languages, with no limit on minutes or meetings. Pro, €29.99 once, adds the voices told apart, Parakeet’s 25 European languages and better notes.
00:00:50 You Can it take notes in a meeting I am not in?
00:00:55 nchova No. nchova transcribes what your Mac hears, so you, or your Mac, have to be in the call. A bot can attend for you; nchova cannot.
00:01:13 You Which call apps does it work with?
00:01:18 nchova Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, FaceTime, Webex and calls in the browser; any other call starts from the menu bar. See Zoom, Google Meet and Teams.
00:01:36 You Can I ask Claude or ChatGPT about my meetings?
00:01:41 nchova Yes: nchova’s MCP server runs on your Mac and connects with one click. See meetings in your assistant.
00:01:59 You And a recording I already have?
00:02:04 nchova Drop it on the Meetings window: it is transcribed on your Mac, up to four hours, and gets its notes like a call. See audio files.

Checked on 15 October 2026: Otter Notetaker · Otter desktop app · How Fireflies joins · Fireflies desktop app · Fireflies data storage · Fathom · Fathom without a bot · Fathom data · The tl;dv bot · tl;dv and your calendar · tl;dv without a bot · tl;dv pricing · Read Assistant · Read desktop recording · Read data · Granola privacy · Granola transcription · Zoom meeting summary · Teams intelligent recap · Meet: Take notes for me

Read next

Hold Fn.

nchova writes the rest. Thirty days of everything, free.

Download nchova