Record a call
Record in the browser, record with the desktop app, or upload a file you already have.
There are three ways to capture a call yourself: record in your browser, record with the desktop app, or upload a recording you already have. They all end in the same place — a call in the Active Hub with a transcript, a summary and a list of suggested actions.
Record in your browser
Press Record in the Active Hub. Your browser will ask for permission to use the microphone the first time; allow it.
While you are recording:
- The live transcript builds up on screen as people speak.
- Pause stops the clock and the transcript; Stop ends the call and starts processing.
- You can leave the page. A small transport bar follows you around the app so the recording is never lost behind a navigation.
Browser recording captures your microphone only. That is the right choice for an in-person meeting, a phone call on speaker, or dictating notes to yourself — but not for an online meeting, where the other people come through your speakers rather than your microphone.
Record with the desktop app
The desktop app captures your microphone and what comes out of your speakers, which is what you need for Zoom, Teams, Meet and softphone calls. It records the meeting whether or not you are the host, and nobody needs to admit a bot to the call.
Install it from the user menu at the bottom of the sidebar — Download desktop app. Sign in once and it stays signed in.
Recording works the same way: press record, watch the live transcript, press stop. When you stop, the call is saved to the same Active Hub you see in the browser.
Upload a recording
If you already have an audio file, press Upload File in the Active Hub and choose it. Upload is the right route for a recording made on a phone, a dictaphone, or a conferencing tool that produced its own file.
A short call is processed in under a minute; a long one takes a few minutes. You can close the page — it will be waiting for you when you come back.
Very short calls are ignored
A recording has to contain a real conversation before ActiveLens keeps it. If you press record and then stop after a few seconds, or nobody says anything, the recording is discarded rather than saved as an empty call. This keeps the Active Hub free of accidental taps.
Languages
ActiveLens transcribes many languages, not only English. You can choose the language you expect to speak in Settings → Recording & transcription; leaving it on automatic works well for most people.
If you are on a call in a language you do not read comfortably, you can turn on live translation while the call is running and read along in your own language. The translation is for reading — the transcript itself stays in the language that was spoken.
Correcting a transcript
No transcript is perfect. Open the call, go to the Transcript tab, and you can rename a speaker — every line from that person is relabeled at once. Renaming speakers before you regenerate the summary is the single best way to improve it.
Where the audio goes
The recording is stored with the call so you can play it back from the call page. You can scrub through it, change the playback speed, and click any line of the transcript to jump to that moment.
Two switches in Settings → Recording & transcription control this:
- Save call recording — keep the audio after the call. Turn it off and ActiveLens keeps the transcript and discards the audio.
- Improve transcript from recording — after the call, re-read the saved audio to produce a more accurate transcript than the live one. It needs the recording, so it is only available while Save call recording is on.