autorec

Private Meeting Recorder. No bots, no cloud!

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August 20, 2026 macOS build is out (and what else changed since June)

Quick update since the beta tester post in June.

The Mac build shipped at the end of July. Autorec now runs on Linux, Windows and macOS (Apple Silicon, macOS 12 or newer). Same behaviour as on the other platforms: it sits in the menu bar, notices Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, records the meeting window and transcribes it locally with whisper.cpp. One caveat: the DMG is only ad-hoc signed for now, so the first launch is right-click → Open. Proper Apple Developer ID signing is on the list.

Other things that landed since June:

  • Launching the app by hand now opens the window instead of only dropping an icon in the tray. One of the Windows beta testers hit exactly that confusion, thanks for the report.

  • Autostart on login, opt in, with a toggle in settings.

  • A video timing bug that produced phantom "transcript queued" entries is gone.

  • Prompt edits for the AI summary are saved to disk properly.

Still one person, still €20 once per major version. The free tier is 3 recordings a day, 40 minutes each, if you just want to see whether it picks up your calls.

If you're on a Mac and wrote to me in June: the build is ready. Email hello@autorec.app and I'll send you the license.

Downloads: https://autorec.app/downloads

1 Comment

  1. 1

    The steady iteration based on actual tester feedback stands out. The product is clearly being shaped by specific usage problems rather than just accumulating features.

June 20, 2026 Built a local meeting recorder, no bot joins the call. Looking for a few people who live in meetings to test it (free lifetime license)

I'm Moritz, I'be been working as freelance software developer for the last couple of years. I've recently been busybuilding Autorec, a desktop app that records your meetings locally. No bot joins the call, nothing gets uploaded to a cloud, and the recordings and transcripts stay on your machine.

Quick backstory: Freelancing means a lot of calls. Sales calls with potential clients, often several rounds before anything is signed, then scoping calls, then regular project calls once things are running. At some point I started recording my calls using obs. It began as a sales thing, rewatching my own conversations to see what I did well and where I fumbled, but it turned out to be way more useful than that. Being able to go back and find that one detail a client mentioned three weeks ago is super useful. I'm also kind of ADHD, so when I'd zone out mid-call while a client was talking, having a record saved me more than once.

So I hacked together sothe first version of what is now autorec: just some scripts to transcribe the recordings, plus a little web ui running on my machine to search the transcripts, generate summaries, and jump straight to the spot in the video where a topic came up. Somewhere while building that, I though that other people might want this too.

While there are things like Otter, which I also used for some time, I never liked the tools that join your meeting as a bot. There's an extra attendee sitting in the participant list, and people behave a little differently when they notice it. The conversation changes. And the big one for me: I sign NDAs with clients, and a third-party bot just shouldn't be in that room.

I bought the domain in autumn 2025 and then procrastinated on it for six months before actually committing this year and building it into a proper app.

The short version of what it does: it sits in your menu bar or system tray and notices when you join a call. It records the meeting window (not your whole screen), transcribes it locally with Whisper, and can write a summary using whatever AI that has an openai compatible api endpoint at including local/ self-hosted. You don't start it, stop it, or rename anything.

It works, but I have one gap. I've been my own main test user, and I don't sit in nearly as many meetings as some of you do. I want to know how it holds up for someone who's on calls all day.

So I'm looking for a few beta testers, just a handful of people I'll pick and actually talk to. I'm especially interested in power users and people running an agency or consultancy, anyone juggling multiple clients who knows the pain I started from.

What I'm after:

- You're in a lot of video meetings (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or anything else).

- You'll actually use it for a few weeks and tell me what's annoying, what breaks, and what's missing.

- You're up for giving an honest quote at the end, but only if you'd genuinely recommend it.

What you get:

- A free lifetime license. Not just this version, but every future major version too. Autorec currently costs €20 per major version.

- Direct access to me as the developer. You tell me something's broken or missing, I fix it. No ticket queue, no "we'll pass that along."

- Real influence on the roadmap. Features you need get priority. You're not filling out a feedback form that goes into a backlog — you're shaping what gets built next.

- First-hand support. If something doesn't work on your setup, I'll debug it with you directly.

Platforms: it runs on Linux and Windows today. macOS is in the works, so if you're on a Mac, still reach out and I'll bring you in the moment the build is ready.

Fair warning: it's a paid app from a solo developer. Not an open-source project, not a VC-funded thing with a support team behind it. You'd be testing something one person builds and maintains.

If that sounds like you, comment with roughly how many meetings you sit through in a week and which platform you're on, or email me at hello@autorec.app. I'll reach out to a handful of you this week.

3 Comments

  1. 1

    What I found interesting is that the product seems to have started from one problem and accumulated value from several others along the way.

    You began with reviewing your own calls.

    Then it became finding details from weeks ago.

    Then protecting client conversations.

    Then avoiding the social effect of a bot in the room.

    I'm curious whether those all point to the same product, or whether one of them ends up becoming the reason people actually keep using it.

    1. 1

      Good Question!

      I guess that is what I'm trying to figure out still.

      Only time will tell.

      1. 1

        That's actually the part I'd be most interested in.

        The question feels less like whether those are valuable and more like which one eventually earns the right to define the product.

        Probably more than I'd try to unpack properly in a thread though.

        What's the best email to reach you on?

About

I freelance, sign NDAs, and never liked that tools like Otter join the call as a bot. People notice, the conversation changes, and a third-party service shouldn't be in that room. So I built a recorder that runs locally.