A lecture recorder for students on the Mac

Taking notes in a lecture means choosing between listening and writing. A recording solves that, but a two-hour audio file is hard to use: you cannot skim it, and finding the one explanation you need means scrubbing back and forth.

A transcript fixes the second problem. This page covers how to turn lectures into text and notes on a Mac, what to look for in a lecture recording app, and how to ask for permission the right way.

Two kinds of lecture, one app

In the lecture hall. Your Mac’s built-in microphone, or a small external one, records the room. Sit where you can hear the lecturer clearly; if you can hear them well, the microphone usually can too. Rooms with a sound system are easier than large halls without one.

Online lectures. When the lecture is on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or a video in your browser, the sound comes out of your computer rather than into the microphone. A lecture recorder needs to capture the computer’s audio directly, so you get a clean recording even with headphones on. The guide on recording system audio on a Mac explains how that works.

Hearkeeper records both: your microphone and your computer’s audio, directly on the Mac, with no bot joining the call.

From lecture to text to notes

Here is what Hearkeeper does with a lecture recording:

• Live transcript. Captions appear about 2–4 seconds behind the lecturer, so you can glance at a word you missed without breaking your focus.
• A final, more accurate transcript. After the lecture, a final pass with Whisper large-v3 turbo replaces the live text and separates the speakers, so the lecturer’s explanation and a classmate’s question are not blended together.
• A summary. A language model on your Mac writes a summary of the session, so you have an outline to review before you open the full transcript.
• Every line links to the moment. Click a line to hear exactly how it was said: useful for formulas, names and anything you want to hear twice.
• Your own notes, next to it. Type notes during the lecture as usual; the transcript fills in what you did not have time to write.

Search a whole semester

Transcripts add up. Hearkeeper keeps full-text and semantic search across all your recordings, stored in one file on your disk.

• Full-text search finds the exact term: “eigenvalue”, “Keynes”, “section 4.2”.
• Semantic search finds the idea even when you do not remember the wording: “when did she explain why the experiment failed?”

You can also ask questions across your lectures, and each answer comes with a timestamp that takes you to where the lecturer said it. That matters for studying: you check the answer against the lecture, not against the model’s memory.

Treat it as a study aid, not a replacement for going to class or for your own notes. Writing things in your own words is still one of the better ways to learn them.

Works without Wi-Fi

Campus Wi-Fi is often slowest exactly when a whole lecture hall is using it. Hearkeeper transcribes, summarises and searches on your Mac, so none of it depends on the network. It keeps working in a basement lab, on a train or on a flight home.

It also means your lectures stay on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to connect a team server or your own API key. More on that on the page about local AI meeting notes.

Lectures in more than one language

Transcription covers 99 languages. Icelandic is first-class, and a session that switches between Icelandic and English is detected automatically. See Icelandic transcription.

Ask the lecturer first

Recording a lecture is usually not a problem, but it is not automatically allowed either. Lecturers own their teaching material in many places, universities have their own rules, and your classmates’ questions and comments are part of the recording too.

Check the rules

• Read the course page and syllabus. Many courses state their recording policy there.
• Look up your university’s policy. Some universities allow recording for personal study, some require permission for each course, and some have a standard form.
• If you need recordings as a disability accommodation, go through your university’s disability or accessibility office. They can arrange permission for you.

Ask, briefly

A short message before the first lecture works well:

“Hi, I’d like to record your lectures on my laptop so I can review them and search the transcript when I study. The recordings are only for my own use and I won’t share them. Is that all right?”

Asking takes a minute and costs nothing. If they say no, respect it; if they say yes for some sessions only, record only those.

Respect the room

• Keep recordings to yourself. Do not post them, share them in group chats or upload them to other services unless the lecturer agreed to that.
• Pause for discussion if the lecturer or classmates ask, or when the class talks about something personal.
• Delete them when you no longer need them, for example after the exam.

Hearkeeper helps with the visible part. Every recording starts with a consent step, where you can post a short notice in an online lecture’s chat or read it aloud, and a consent receipt is saved with the recording. While it records, a recording pill stays on your screen; it shows up in screen shares and cannot be hidden. For more on the general question, see recording meetings with consent.

What you need

• A Mac with macOS 14.2 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
• Disk space for the speech and language models, which download once. The app shows the size before it downloads.
• For the lecture hall, a seat within clear hearing distance of the lecturer, or a small external microphone.

Join the waitlist

Hearkeeper is not released yet; it is coming to the Mac first. If you want lecture recordings you can search and question, join the waitlist and we will email you when there is a build for you.