Google Meet can now transcribe and record meetings by default

Video meetings are the new normal for so many of us, and with easy access to them from our smartphones, it’s harder and harder to come up with a good reason why you can’t attend. For whatever reason, though, if you’re unable to make a call, all the major platforms support the ability to record video meetings for later reference. Of course, a feature like that is only useful if you remember to take advantage of it. Now Google Meet is making sure you’ll never miss a recording again, as it delivers the ability to automatically transcribe and record calls.

These new Google Workspace options offer three settings for controlling these defaults. You can automatically transcribe all meetings, generating a written record. And if you want to get the full visual experience, too, another setting lets you automatically record meetings by default. With both of these modes, either the host or the participants can still opt out and cancel the recording, but starting from this position of “on” should mean fewer meetings you accidentally forget to archive at all.

The third setting is just for users whose Workspace accounts have a Gemini AI add-on that gives them the ability to summarize calls using Meet’s Gemini note-taking capabilities. If your team has access to that tool, you’ll now be able to have it jotting down notes by default, just like can with full transcripts.

Really, we can’t think of anything not to like here. No one wants to be the person who forgot to record an important meeting, and this on-by-default behavior sounds like exactly the way to best avoid that. And if anyone’s concerned about personal privacy or sharing confidential information, participants of meetings are easily able to turn these tools off during a call.

Users on Workspace accounts should start getting access to these new settings over the next few days, but your admin may need to turn them on for you.