As a leader, it's your duty to steer your team through constructive dialogue that solidifies goal alignment and prioritization while tackling any issues that arise. Whether your focus is on enhancing accountability for follow-ups, documenting multifaceted decisions, or gathering insights, the act of recording your meetings can be incredibly beneficial.

But, getting this functionality all set up on Google Meet is not as intuitive as recording calls on Zoom, so we’re here to break down that barrier and provide an easy guide on how to record on Google Meet—empowering you to concentrate on the substance of your meetings rather than the technical setup.

Can you record a Google Meet call?

It’s definitely possible to record a Google Meet call from a desktop device, directly on the platform, through Google Meet extensions, or with recording software. Doing so will document the video call, associated audio from anyone who is unmuted, and any chats that occur within the platform during the recording period. Typically, you'll find the recording in your Google Drive a few hours post-call as .mp4 (video) and .sbv (subtitles) files, which you can then download, distribute, or store elsewhere as needed.

It’s important to note that for business accounts, Admins will have control over what can be recorded and at what quality. For example, an Admin can opt out of 1080p video recordings for their organization which leaves employees with a lower-quality video resolution to work with. Unfortunately, the video conferencing platform does not allow recording a Google Meet call from a mobile iOS or Android device.

Make sure you're obtaining consent before you record the call so you're practicing great Google Meet etiquette, building trust and fostering collaboration in your organization.

Who can record a Google Meet call?

Google Meet offers a built-in recording function that allows select users to record, download, and share meeting content. This access depends partly on your role in the meeting and partly on your account’s subscription level.

For example, you can record a meeting if you are:

• The meeting host.

• From outside the host's organization and promoted to a co-host.

• From the host's organization, and Host Management has been turned off.

How to record a Google Meet video call

1. Start or join a Google Meet call

This first part is the easiest, especially if you’re already an avid Google Meet user. All you need to do is join your Google Meet call. It can be one that is already on your calendar, or you can go to Google Meet and click “New Meeting,” which provides you with options to start an instant meeting or schedule a new one for later. Don’t forget to share the link with any meeting participants who need to join.

2. Select the Activities icon or the More (ellipses) button

Once you’re on the call, there are two possible places where you might find the recording button, depending on the subscription level you have. First, look under the vertical ellipses (three stacked dots) to the left of the red End Call button. The other place to look is the Activities button, which looks like a small triangle, square, and circle stacked together. The Activities button will be on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Pro tip: If you’re using Fellow to record your meeting notes, you’ll see it in the bottom right corner as well!

3. Press “Recording” then click “Start Recording”

You’ll see a button that says “Recording” and then a second prompt to “Start Recording.” If it says “Recording unavailable,” you’ll need to check your subscription level, request permission from the co-host or leverage a different screen recording route (see below for an option using Fellow).

4. Return to the Recording tab to click “Stop Recording”

When you’re done recording the segment of the call that you’d like to document, navigate back to where you first found the “Recording” button. You’ll see “Stop Recording” and click that. Note that you won’t be able to stop or pause a recording unless you have permission to start a recording.

How to record a Google Meet without the built-in recording function

If you’re not the meeting host or co-host, you won’t have Google Meet’s built-in recording function available. Luckily, an all-in-one AI meeting recording and management software like Fellow can also do the trick!

Here’s how to record on Google Meet with Fellow:

1. Schedule the Fellow Meeting Copilot to join and auto-record your call

You can do this in three ways:

1. Click on the lightning bolt icon in the upper right-hand corner of the note to access your Automations in settings and toggle on Auto-record.

2. Toggle on Auto-recording from the top of the note in Fellow

3. Toggle it on from the top of the note in the Fellow Chrome extension

2. Or, start the recording by pressing the "Record" button

This can be done from the note in Fellow and in the Fellow Chrome extension as well. Note: the banner to record will appear 5 minutes before the scheduled start time of your meeting.

3. Allow the Fellow Meeting Copilot into the meeting

If you want Fellow also to automatically transcribe your meeting with AI, you'll need to allow the Fellow Meeting Copilot to join your meeting. Earlier, we mentioned that you’ll see Fellow in your Google Meet window in the bottom right corner. Look for it there to manage software access so that Fellow can start automatically recording meeting notes and summaries for you.

By scheduling the Fellow Meeting Copilot to join your call, you guarantee its presence at the designated time, preventing any oversight in inviting it to start recording, transcribing, and generating a summary of your call.

4. Stop recording by hanging up the call

If you need to continue the conversation but don’t want to record it, you can easily jump into a new meeting window. Fellow won’t automatically start recording again unless you manually turn it on following the steps above.

5. Experience instant AI meeting recording, transcript, and summary

This is great for sharing with co-workers who couldn’t attend the meeting or for tracking critical points in one-on-one meetings that need to be closely monitored. Recorded content is easy to share via Fellow to email, Slack, or any other productivity tool your workplace leverages. If you go to your User Settings, you'll be able to set up all the preferences for the Meeting Copilot in your account. Here you can choose when on how you want the Fellow Copilot to behave, and who you want the recaps to be sent to.

Click on the meeting summary to view the entire transcript and summary of the meeting and view the recording. The recording will be saved directly in Fellow, allowing authorized users like meeting attendees or guest users to view the meeting details. In addition to the transcript and summary, Fellow's AI Meeting Copilot will automatically generate action items based on the conversation so everyone is aligned and follow-ups are clear.

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To get more detailed information on setting up Fellow to record Google Meet calls, check out this Fellow Help Center article.

Streamline your meeting documentation with Fellow

Fellow is an all-in-one AI meeting transcription and management software that enables teams to work faster, maintain higher accuracy in planning, and collaborate more effectively. Fellow seamlessly integrates with Google Meet (via any browser window or the Google Chrome browser extension) to automatically record meeting minutes and decision-making processes and save your team hours per week.

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