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Teams Copilot meeting notes, or notes made on your Mac

Microsoft Teams can write AI notes and tasks for your meetings, if your organisation has the right licence. Hearkeeper does the same kind of work on your own Mac, for Teams and every other call. Here is how they compare, and when each one fits.

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Microsoft Teams has two ways to turn a meeting into notes. Intelligent recap gives you AI-generated notes, suggested tasks, speaker and name-mention markers, and chapters on the Recap tab after the meeting. Copilot in Teams lets you ask questions about the meeting while it runs and afterwards. Both live inside Microsoft 365, next to your calendar, chat and files, and both inherit your organisation’s security, compliance and retention policies. If your company already runs on Microsoft 365 and has the licences, that is a strong reason to use them.

Hearkeeper is not released yet. It is a Mac app that records your microphone and your computer’s audio, and makes the transcript, summary and to-dos on the Mac itself.

The core difference

Licences. Intelligent recap needs a Microsoft 365 subscription with Teams, plus either a Teams Premium licence or a Microsoft Copilot licence for each user who wants it. Audio recap needs the Copilot licence. An admin must also turn on transcription, and recording for the full recap. If you are searching for “meeting notes without a Copilot licence”, this is why: the AI notes are an add-on, and the decision is usually your IT department’s, not yours. Hearkeeper is an app you install on your own Mac; its price is not announced yet.

Where the work happens. Teams recap runs in Microsoft’s cloud. Microsoft says customer data isn’t logged or used for any AI model training or testing, that the AI notes and tasks use a GPT model through Azure OpenAI inside the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary, and that customer data isn’t shared with OpenAI. The transcript is stored in the meeting organiser’s Exchange Online account and, when the meeting is recorded, in OneDrive with the recording. The AI notes and tasks are stored in the participants’ mailboxes. Data stays in the geographic region of your Microsoft 365 organisation.

Hearkeeper transcribes on your Mac with whisper.cpp, accelerated by Metal, and writes summaries, decisions and to-dos with a local language model, with no API key. Nothing is uploaded unless you connect a team server or your own API key, and it keeps working offline.

Which meetings it covers. Teams recap works for Teams meetings, events and calls. Microsoft’s support page also says Copilot won’t work in meetings hosted outside the participant’s organisation, so a client’s Teams meeting, or a Zoom or Google Meet call, is out of reach. Hearkeeper records what your Mac hears: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, Webex, FaceTime, and meetings or lectures in the room, all in one archive.

Consent. When a Teams meeting is transcribed, all participants see a notification that it is being transcribed. That is built into Teams, and it is good. Hearkeeper asks before the recording starts: every recording opens with a consent step (read a short notice aloud, post it in the chat, or both), a consent receipt is saved with the recording, and the recording pill stays on screen, including in screen shares, with no hide button.

Icelandic. Teams live transcription lists Icelandic among its spoken languages. The list of languages for Teams recap’s AI features on Microsoft’s support page does not include it. Hearkeeper treats Icelandic as a first-class language and detects mixed Icelandic and English on its own, among 99 languages in all.

Teams recap and Hearkeeper side by side

Teams intelligent recap and Copilot Hearkeeper
Bot in the call No, built into Teams No. Records on your Mac; no bot joins
Meetings covered Teams meetings, events and calls; Copilot not in meetings hosted outside your organisation Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, Webex, FaceTime, and in the room
Licence needed Microsoft 365 with Teams, plus Teams Premium or a Microsoft Copilot licence; admin turns on transcription Not announced yet
Where audio is processed Microsoft’s cloud, within the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary On your Mac (whisper.cpp with Metal)
Where notes are stored Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint, in your organisation’s region One SQLite file and your own audio and note files on your disk
Training on your meetings Microsoft says customer data isn’t used for AI model training No. Nothing is uploaded unless you connect a server or your own API key
Works offline Not described on the pages we read Yes, fully
Consent step and receipt All participants see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed Consent step before every recording; receipt saved; pill that can’t be hidden
Icelandic In the transcription languages; not in the languages listed for recap’s AI features Yes, first-class, with mixed Icelandic and English
Platforms Teams desktop and mobile apps Mac (macOS 14.2+, Apple silicon and Intel), when released; other platforms later
Price as listed Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: $21 per user a month paid yearly ($18 on a promotion to 31 December 2026), on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan; Teams Premium is priced separately (as listed on 30 September 2026) Not announced yet

When Teams recap is the better choice

  • Your organisation already has the licences. If you have Teams Premium or Copilot, the notes appear on the Recap tab with nothing new to buy or install.
  • Your company needs central control. Recap follows your organisation’s retention, compliance and data residency settings, and admins manage it from one place. That is hard for a personal app to match.
  • Your meetings are Teams meetings. Notes, tasks, chapters and the recording sit next to the meeting in your calendar and chat, where colleagues already look.
  • You need it today, on any device. It is available now on Teams’ desktop and mobile apps. Hearkeeper is on a waitlist and starts on the Mac only.
  • You want to catch up on meetings you missed. Recap covers meetings you were invited to but didn’t attend. Hearkeeper only records what your own Mac hears.

When Hearkeeper fits better

  • You don’t have a Copilot or Teams Premium licence, and getting one is not your decision.
  • Your meetings aren’t all Teams. Clients’ Teams meetings, Zoom, Meet, Slack huddles, FaceTime and in-person meetings land in one archive.
  • You’d rather your meetings stayed on your computer. Transcription, summaries and search run on your Mac and keep working without a connection.
  • You meet in Icelandic, or switch between Icelandic and English in the same meeting.
  • You want answers you can check. Every summary line and every answer cites the second it was said, and you can ask questions during the call and across all your meetings.
  • You want your notes outside any one vendor. Audio and notes are your own files, and notes export to Markdown.

One caution: if you record a work meeting with a personal app, your organisation’s own recording policy still applies. Hearkeeper’s consent step tells the room; it does not replace asking your employer.

Sources

All read on 30 September 2026.

Hearkeeper is coming to the Mac first. Join the waitlist to hear when it’s ready.

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