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Use case · No plugin, no bot

No Chrome extension. No bot in the call. No install on their side.

Most transcription tools ship as a Chrome extension plus a calendar bot plus a meeting joiner. Three install steps, three IT reviews, and the whole thing breaks the moment your call isn't a browser tab. Minuta is one signed desktop app — it captures the audio your computer is already playing and gives you the text.

The install stack nobody asked for

Every cloud transcription product has the same onboarding stack: install a Chrome extension, give it calendar access, invite their bot to your meetings, ask the other side to accept it. Each step is a small friction; together they're the reason most people just don't transcribe at all. And if your IT blocks extensions, or the call is on FaceTime, or you're on a native Zoom client without an integration, the whole product just doesn't apply.

The actual functionality you want is simple: capture the audio that's already coming out of your computer speakers, run it through a transcription model, give you the text. Everything else — the Chrome extension, the calendar OAuth, the meeting bot — exists because the products were architected for the cloud era when local system audio capture wasn't viable. It is now.

Where it actually matters

Locked-down Mac

"IT blocks every recorder you've ever tried"

Your work Mac has Chrome extensions disabled by MDM. Otter and Tactiq are non-starters. Calendar bot integrations are blocked. Minuta is a single signed desktop app — install via the standard installer, no admin extension, no bot, no calendar OAuth. The IT review takes 10 minutes instead of 6 weeks.

FaceTime / native app

"Calls that aren't browser tabs"

Customer call on FaceTime. Or a podcast recording in QuickTime. Or a native Zoom client without the latest SDK. None of these work with a Chrome extension. Minuta captures system audio — whatever is playing through your computer, transcribed in real time. Doesn't matter what app made the sound.

Anti-friction / cross-team

"You don't ask the other side to install anything"

Five-person customer call. With Otter you'd ask them to accept Otter joining as a bot, or you'd send them a transcription link they have to log into. With Minuta there is nothing on their side. Your Mac records the system audio that comes through your speakers; their experience is identical to a normal call.

How Minuta plugs in without plugging into anything

Open Minuta before the call. Run the call however you'd run it — Zoom web, Zoom native, Teams, Meet, FaceTime, Phone via Continuity, podcast recorder, browser tab playing a webinar. Minuta listens to your system audio and transcribes in real time.

  • One signed desktop app. Standard installer, no admin install, no Chrome extension. IT review is the standard signed-app review.
  • Captures system audio at the OS level. Works on Zoom (web or native), Teams (web or native), Meet, FaceTime, Phone (Continuity), native podcast recorders, anything that plays sound through your computer.
  • No bot joins the call. The other side sees nothing because nothing third-party is in the room.
  • No calendar OAuth, no contact list scraping, no integration permissions. The app reads your microphone + system audio and that's it.

Why this is structurally different from the alternatives

  • Otter requires a Chrome extension and a calendar bot for the auto-record flow. Tactiq is Chrome-only by architecture. tl;dv joins as a bot every time. Each is a different friction profile; all three break in IT-locked or non-browser environments.
  • A signed desktop app is a one-time IT review. A Chrome extension + calendar OAuth + meeting bot is three separate reviews — and the bot one is often a hard no in security-conscious orgs.
  • The user's privacy posture is "I don't have to ask anyone else to install something" — that's true zero-friction onboarding, not just the user's own zero-install but the whole call's.
  • Free tier 1h/month — test it on a real call without commitment, including the calls a Chrome extension would never have helped you with.

Other situations Minuta is built for

More ways professionals stay sharp on live calls across English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Other honest comparisons

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