Best Meeting Minutes App: Record, Transcribe and Share Minutes

Marisol has been the volunteer secretary of her neighborhood association for two years. Every second Tuesday, 14 people crowd into the back room of a library, and she types the minutes on her laptop while trying to follow a debate about parking. Last month she missed who seconded the motion on the budget, and had to email three people to find out. (Marisol is a composite, but her Tuesday is a common one.)

She didn't need a better template. She needed a meeting minutes app that records the room, so she could listen instead of type.

The short answer: pick an app on the phone you already carry. ParrotNotes runs on iPhone and Android, records with no meeting bot, and writes a summary after every recording. iPhones also give you free transcripts in Voice Memos, and recent Galaxy phones in Voice Recorder.

Below are seven options, checked on each vendor's own pages on November 8, 2026: what each free plan includes, which phones it runs on, and which parts of the minutes you'll still write yourself. To try the phone route first, download ParrotNotes free.

What is the best meeting minutes app?

For most people, the best meeting minutes app is one that records the room on the phone you already own and hands you a transcript, a summary, and the action items when the meeting ends. The short list, by phone:

1. ParrotNotes: iPhone, Android, and Mac, for meetings in a room
2. Otter.ai: iPhone and Android, plus a bot for video calls
3. Fathom: free video-call notes, with an iPhone app for the room
4. Notta: a transcription-first app on iPhone and Android
5. Apple Voice Memos: free transcripts on iPhone 12 or later
6. Samsung Voice Recorder: free transcripts and summaries on recent Galaxy phones
7. Google Recorder: the built-in recorder on Pixel phones

What a meeting minutes app should do

Most "best meeting software" lists rank video-call assistants. But minutes come from rooms: board meetings, staff meetings, committee nights. Judge an app on four things.

• It records the room on your phone. A bot is useless when there's no call.
• It lasts the whole meeting. A 30-minute cap per recording won't cover a 90-minute board meeting in one go.
• Its output looks like minutes. A summary with decisions and action items is much closer to a first draft than a raw transcript.
• You can share it. The draft goes to the chair, gets edited, and is filed once approved.

Robert's Rules' official FAQ puts the limit plainly: "Minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not a record of what was said." An app is very good at what was said. Turning that into what was done is still your job; our guide to AI meeting minutes walks through the method.

The 7 best meeting minutes apps, checked November 8, 2026

1. ParrotNotes: minutes from meetings in a room, on iPhone and Android

ParrotNotes was built for conversations in a room. Tap record and put your phone in the middle of the table. No bot, no calendar to connect. It keeps recording with the screen locked, and recording works offline, so a basement room with no signal is fine; the transcript arrives once you're back online.

When you stop, you get a transcript and an AI summary. On AI-powered recordings you also get action items and key points, and you can chat with the transcript ("Who agreed to book the hall?") or draft a follow-up email. Share the note by link, or export it as text or markdown.

Pro adds what minute-takers ask about most. Custom insight templates save your minutes headings once, so every recording comes back in your order. Speaker identification shows who said what. Transcription in 99+ languages with translation covers bilingual meetings, and docx and PDF export gives you a file to circulate.

Plans (from parrotnotes.app/pricing): Free gives you 100 minutes of recording a month, up to 30 minutes per recording, an AI summary on every recording, and 5 AI-powered recordings a month with action items and key points. Pro is $19.99 a month, or $14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes a month, recordings up to 3 hours, and every AI feature on every recording. Apps for iOS, Android, and macOS.

Best for: anyone who minutes meetings in a room and wants a draft before they're back at their desk.

2. Otter.ai: a phone app, plus a bot for video calls

Otter's pricing page lists iOS and Android apps on its free Basic plan, and its features include "Automated summaries with action items and outlines". For video calls, Otter's notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

Plans (checked November 8, 2026): Basic is free with 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 file imports in total. Pro is $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually, with 1,200 minutes and up to 90 minutes per meeting. Business is $30 a month, or $19.99 billed annually, with meetings up to 4 hours. More in our Otter.ai pricing guide.

Best for: English-speaking teams who mostly meet on video and minute the odd meeting in a room.

3. Fathom: free video-call notes, with an iPhone app for the room

Fathom's pricing page lists "Unlimited recordings + transcriptions" and "Instant AI call summaries" on the Free plan. Its help center adds: "You can also use the Fathom iOS mobile app to record in-person conversations." Fathom's pages don't mention an Android app.

Plans (checked November 8, 2026): Free is $0, and Premium is $20 a month, or $16 billed annually. Team is $19 per user, or $15 annually, with a two-user minimum. Business is $34 per user, or $25 annually. Its table marks AI action items as "Limited use" on some plans.

Best for: iPhone users whose meetings are mostly on video, with an in-person meeting now and then.

4. Notta: transcription first, on iPhone and Android

Notta's mobile page says the app "can record audio and generate the transcript simultaneously," and exports transcripts in several formats.

Plans (checked November 8, 2026, notta.ai/en/pricing): Free is $0 with 120 transcription minutes a month, up to 3 minutes per conversation, and 10 AI summaries a month. Pro is $8.17 a month billed annually ($97.99 a year) with 1,800 minutes, recordings up to 5 hours, and 100 AI summaries a month. Business is $16.67 a month billed annually ($199.99 a year) with 200 AI summaries.

Best for: people who want transcripts and will pay, since 3 minutes per conversation is a demo, not a meeting.

5. Apple Voice Memos: free transcripts on iPhone

Apple's support guide says transcription "is available on iPhone 12 or later in English (all variants), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese," and that it's "not available in all countries or regions." You can copy the transcript into a document.

Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools can summarize it, but only on an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 model or later. Action items and the minutes are yours to write. Our guide to Voice Memos transcription covers the steps, and how to record a meeting on iPhone covers where to put the phone.

Best for: an occasional meeting on an iPhone, when a searchable transcript is enough.

6. Samsung Voice Recorder: free transcripts and summaries on Galaxy phones

Samsung's Voice Recorder support page says the Galaxy AI features work "on select phones and tablets running Android 14 with One UI 6.1 or higher." Open a recording, tap the Transcript assist icon (four stars), then Transcribe. Tap it again and choose Summarize.

Samsung says "Galaxy AI basic features provided by Samsung are free," and lists 16 supported languages. More in our Samsung voice recorder guide.

Best for: Galaxy owners who want a free transcript and a quick summary without installing anything.

7. Google Recorder: the built-in option on Pixel phones

Pixel phones come with Google's Recorder app, which transcribes as you record. It's a Pixel app, so it won't help a team with mixed phones. Our Google Recorder app guide covers the options for other phones.

Best for: Pixel owners who want a transcript from the phone's own recorder.

Minute a meeting in a room next week? Try ParrotNotes free on iPhone or Android and compare the draft with your own notes.

Meeting minutes apps compared

Competitor facts from each vendor's own pricing, product, or support page, checked November 8, 2026. ParrotNotes facts from parrotnotes.app/pricing. Plans change, so check the vendor's page before you buy.

What a meeting minutes app fills in, and what you still write

Every app above stops short of finished minutes. That isn't a flaw: minutes are an official record, and someone has to own it. Here's what an app drafts and what stays with you. (The parts follow our meeting minutes template.)

Attendance and motions are where an app helps least and mistakes matter most. Keep a sign-in sheet, and jot each motion as it happens, even with a recording running. Our guide on how to take meeting minutes covers what to write live, and the board meeting minutes template has the formal format.

Back to Marisol. At her next association meeting she put her phone in the middle of the table and kept a one-page sheet for motions only: who moved, who seconded, the vote. After the meeting she pasted the AI summary under each agenda heading, cut it to the decisions, and checked the three action items against the transcript. The draft reached the chair that night instead of four days later.

Free app to record and transcribe meeting minutes: which free plan fits

Looking for a free app to record and transcribe meeting minutes? The plans split three ways.

• Built-in and free. Apple Voice Memos (iPhone 12 or later), Samsung Voice Recorder (select Galaxy phones on One UI 6.1 or higher), and Google Recorder (Pixel). You get a transcript; a summary depends on your phone model.
• Free plans with AI on top. ParrotNotes Free gives you 100 minutes a month with up to 30 minutes per recording, a summary on every recording, and action items on 5 recordings a month. Otter Basic gives you 300 minutes a month with up to 30 minutes per conversation. Fathom Free lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, though its in-person recording is on the iPhone app only.
• Free plans that are really demos. Notta Free caps each conversation at 3 minutes, which won't hold a meeting.

The per-recording limit matters more than the monthly total. A 20-minute team huddle sits comfortably in Otter's or ParrotNotes' free plan. For long board or council meetings, plan for a paid tier: ParrotNotes Pro records up to 3 hours per recording.

Our free AI note taker guide compares more free plans. Already have a transcript? Paste it into our free meeting minutes generator for a first draft.

Which meeting minutes app fits your meeting

• A board, committee, or association meeting in a room. ParrotNotes or Otter on your phone, plus a sign-in sheet and a motions sheet. Over 30 minutes, use a paid plan or split the recording at a break.
• A weekly staff meeting where the action items matter most. ParrotNotes, which pulls out action items and can draft the follow-up email to the team.
• A team with iPhones and Android phones. Pick one app that runs on both, so every secretary sends minutes in the same shape. Fathom's room app is iPhone only, and Voice Memos is iPhone only.
• A meeting on Zoom or Teams. A call-based tool such as Fathom or Otter's notetaker joins the call.
• A meeting held in two languages. ParrotNotes Pro transcribes 99+ languages and translates, so a meeting held in Spanish can become English minutes.

Kwame is the operations lead at a 30-person logistics company and minutes the Monday leadership meeting (Kwame is a composite). His managers carry a mix of Android phones and iPhones, so when he was away he got three kinds of notes. He picked one app that ran on both, saved his minutes headings as a template, and asked his stand-ins to use it. Now the minutes look the same whoever takes them.

For more tools that record in a room, with a 15-minute room test, see our best AI note taker for in-person meetings.

Want minutes that start themselves? Get ParrotNotes free, record your next meeting, and edit a draft instead of a blank page.

Ask before you record

Tell everyone at the start that the meeting is being recorded for the minutes, and note it in the minutes. Some U.S. states require everyone's consent, not just yours; our guide to one-party consent states lists them, with sources.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check your organization's own policy too, and never record a meeting secretly.

Conclusion

The best meeting minutes app is the one that records the room on the phone you already carry, and gives you a draft you can turn into the record. Remember:

• Check the phone and the length. Some apps are iPhone only, and free plans cap each recording.
• Built-in recorders are a free start. Voice Memos, Samsung Voice Recorder, and Google Recorder give you a transcript.
• An app writes the draft; you own the minutes. Keep a sign-in sheet and a motions sheet, and share the draft the same night.

Marisol now listens to the debate instead of typing it. Download ParrotNotes free, ask the room, and put your phone on the table at your next meeting.