The bot changes the room
A visible notetaker makes calls feel recorded and formal, and hosts increasingly eject bots on sight. Local capture keeps the conversation normal.
Meeting notes, with nothing in the meeting.
Bot notetakers work by joining your call as a participant, and that one decision causes everything people dislike about them. Overshow listens locally on your Mac instead: no tile on the grid, no participant to admit, and nothing between you and your own conversation.
Your call, as the other side sees it
Lee
Simon
Vic
Liz
Four people. No notetaker tile, nothing to admit or explain.
Notes you can act on, made where you sit.
Once a meeting is detected, or you start one manually, Overshow captures your microphone and the call's output audio and transcribes both on your Mac, speakers separated. Common apps and browser calls work without a bot or per-platform service integration.
- Speaker-separated transcript as the meeting happens
- Summary, decisions, and action items with owners
- Audio is meeting-scoped and idle the rest of the day
After the call
SimonLaunch is Thursday the 26th, straight after payday.
VicInvites go out Friday. I will own the guest list.
LeeAgreed. Venue is confirmed, so we are done here.
Action: invites out Friday, owner Vic
Where bot notetakers go wrong.
The fix is not a better bot. It is not needing one.
Auto-sharing leaks
Bot products have emailed transcripts to every attendee, including the parts after someone thought the call had ended. Overshow shares nothing unless you share it.
Consent stays in your hands
You still owe people notice and consent where the law requires it. Overshow gives you visible capture status and instant pause so meeting your obligations is straightforward.
Private by default
Everything stays in one encrypted database on your device, searchable alongside the rest of your work. Nothing is emailed to attendees, posted to a workspace, or used to train anything, and you can delete any meeting at any time.
The part that stays your responsibility
No bot also means no automatic disclosure banner, so consent stays where it belongs: with you. In many places you must tell people they are being recorded and give them a real chance to refuse. Overshow keeps capture status visible, and you can pause from the app or menu bar. Read the detail in recording consent and your obligations.
Why Overshow doesn't join meetings.
The bot model is under scrutiny in court and from the meeting platforms themselves. Overshow has no participant to admit, flag, or eject because capture runs locally on your Mac; your notice and consent obligations still apply.
A proposed class action was filed against Otter.ai in a US federal court, alleging its meeting bot recorded participants who had never consented. The consolidated case remains before the court, with no ruling on the merits either way.
Google announced a safeguarded admission flow for Meet that holds higher-risk join requests in a separate queue, denied by default unless the host steps in. Industry reporting places third-party notetaker bots in that queue, flagged as a potential risk; rollout ran from late March into April 2026.
Microsoft documented Teams controls that detect external meeting bots, hold detected bots in the lobby, and require explicit approval under the default policy. Microsoft also notes that detection is not perfect, so organisers remain responsible for admission decisions.
Questions people ask before dropping the bot.
Do the other people on the call see anything?
No. There is no bot, no extra participant tile, and no join request; capture runs on your Mac. What remains is your obligation to tell people they are being recorded where law or courtesy requires it. Overshow keeps capture status visible, and you can pause from the app or menu bar.
Does it work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams?
Yes. Overshow recognises common meeting apps and browser calls and transcribes their audio locally once a meeting is detected. For an unrecognised surface, start recording manually. There is no bot or per-platform service integration.
Do I need an account?
Yes, for sign-in, billing, and the one-device limit. Transcripts, summaries, and action items stay in an encrypted database on your device and are not uploaded by default. If you deliberately attach a reviewable search-context diagnostic to feedback, that diagnostic can include transcript text and is uploaded with your submission.
What hardware does it need?
A Mac with Apple silicon, at least 16 GB RAM, and macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later. On-device transcription and speaker separation are what those requirements pay for.
What happens if Overshow shuts down?
Your notes are already on your Mac, and nothing you captured is deleted. Capture, transcription, and search run on-device, so they carry on with no server behind them; only how far back you can search depends on a live subscription.
Related comparisons.
Take your next meeting without a chaperone.
Meetings are transcribed locally, summaries and action items land after every call, and the Free plan keeps the last 7 days searchable forever.
macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later, Apple silicon, and at least 16 GB RAM. 7-day Pro trial included, no card required.