After a face-to-face visit: add participants, record with consent, get a field debrief, then log the visit in your connected CRM. No gender or voiceprint claims. Honest ROI: less double work.
Not every important meeting lives in Zoom or Teams. Field reps sit at the customer table. Managers run a hybrid stand-up with two people in the office and one remote, without a transcript. Account managers walk through a project review on the showroom floor. And many teams run on free Zoom Basic or consumer Teams accounts where a cloud transcript simply does not exist. Until now those conversations often ended as incomplete notes or a stray voice memo nobody finds later. Live recording in CallMerlin fixes that: you record in the app or desktop, Merlin builds a summary with action items, and you ask follow-ups in any channel.
What is Live recording?
Live recording is part of Meeting summaries. For face-to-face or hybrid meetings without a Zoom/Teams transcript, record the conversation in CallMerlin, not with the system voice memo. After Stop, CallMerlin uploads the audio, creates a summary with action items, and deletes the raw audio. The summary stays available for follow-ups, just like Zoom and Teams.
Field post-visit: from visit to CRM
Live recording is more than a note. It starts a fixed post-visit flow for field sales and account managers: Participants before Start, summary plus structured field debrief after Stop, then Log recording in CRM with approval. Optionally before the next visit: Pre-meeting briefing from your connected CRM.
- Participants (name + role) before Start for better action-item attribution
- No gender from voice, no voiceprints: names from your input or clear text
- After Stop: summary + field debrief
- CTA Log recording in CRM: note/activity + tasks on connected CRM(s)
- Writes always with approval; multi-CRM, not Salesforce-only
ROI we do claim: less double typing, faster handoff after a visit, one stack for Zoom, Teams and live recording. We do not publish invented Fortune-company dollars. For an honest compare with Salesforce-deep field tools, see CallMerlin vs aiola.
Why not the system voice memo?
A voice memo on your phone or laptop stays a loose file. You have to relisten later, or manually send it to another AI tool. CallMerlin ties recording, transcription, summary, PIN permissions, minutes bundle and follow-ups into one flow. The summary lands in the same account memory as your Zoom and Teams summaries. Colleagues with the right PIN permission can ask follow-ups later, without sharing the audio file.
- No loose memos in Gallery or Files
- Summary and action items right after Stop
- Follow-ups in Slack, Teams, chat, desktop, app or phone
- Same PIN permission as Zoom/Teams: Meeting summaries
- Raw audio is deleted after successful processing
How it works
- Sign in with your PIN in the CallMerlin app (Android/iPhone) or desktop (Windows/macOS).
- Open Record meeting.
- Optionally fill in Participants (name + role).
- Confirm consent: inform all participants before you record.
- Start recording; stop when the conversation ends.
- CallMerlin uploads the audio, creates a summary with action items, and deletes the raw audio.
- Use Log recording in CRM, or ask for follow-up in any channel, for example: "What were the action items from the latest recording?"
Recording is only available in the app and desktop. Asking for the summary afterwards works in every CallMerlin channel: web widget, desktop, app, Slack, Teams or phone.
Difference from Zoom / Teams
Zoom and Teams deliver a cloud transcript after the meeting. Typical wait: 5 to 15 minutes for Zoom, 5 to 30 minutes for Teams. Live recording does not wait for a third-party transcript: processing starts as soon as you press Stop.
- Zoom / Teams: source is a cloud transcript after the meeting; recording happens in Zoom or Teams.
- Live recording: source is a mic recording in CallMerlin; recording happens only in app and desktop.
- Asking for the summary: in both cases, any CallMerlin channel.
- PIN permission: in both cases, Meeting summaries.
Use Zoom or Teams when those platforms already record with a transcript. Use Live recording when there is no transcript, or when the meeting is face-to-face or hybrid without a reliable cloud recording.
Why not a separate meeting AI?
There are plenty of standalone notetakers. The difference is what happens after the summary.
- Bot notetakers (such as Otter, Fireflies or Fathom): often a bot in the Zoom or Teams call. Fine for cloud meetings, weaker for pure face-to-face or when clients do not want a bot in the room.
- Device notetakers (such as Granola): record via laptop or phone without a bot. Good for notes, but usually a separate notes product beside your CRM, Slack and phone stack.
- Hardware recorders (such as Plaud): carry an extra gadget, then sync later into a separate app.
- CallMerlin Live recording: no bot, no extra device. The summary lands in the same account memory as Zoom and Teams summaries, with PIN permissions, your minutes bundle, and follow-ups in Slack, Teams, chat, desktop, app or phone, including actions in your connected systems.
In short: competitors often solve face-to-face as a separate notes tool. CallMerlin keeps Zoom, Teams and live recording in one stack.
Who is this for?
- Field sales and account managers at the customer site
- Hybrid meetings where part of the team is not in Zoom/Teams
- Project kick-offs, site visits and supplier talks at the table
- Teams that want action items without a separate notetaker bot
Example scenarios
- Customer visit: open Record meeting, confirm consent, capture 40 minutes. After Stop: "Summarize the latest recording." Later in Slack: "Which action items did Finance have?"
- Hybrid stand-up: two colleagues in the office, one on a call. No Teams transcript. You record via desktop. In Teams chat you ask @CallMerlin for the action items.
- Showroom demo: afterwards in the app: "What did we promise the customer about the delivery date?" Merlin answers from the stored summary.
Requirements
- PIN permission Meeting summaries (same right as Zoom/Teams)
- CallMerlin app or desktop with a working microphone
- Maximum 90 minutes or 50 MB per recording
- Consent/information for all participants before you start
Privacy and consent
CallMerlin asks you to confirm consent before recording starts. Inform everyone in the room. For business processing of personal data in the EU, GDPR also requires an information duty: state clearly that you record for a summary and action items. CallMerlin does not keep raw audio after successful processing. What remains is the summary (available for 90 days by default), inside your account and PIN permissions.
- Confirm consent in the app or desktop before Start
- Inform participants openly (no silent eavesdropping recording)
- Raw audio is deleted after success
- The summary follows the same retention as other meeting summaries
Limits and billing
- Paid: up to 20 meeting summaries per account per day (Zoom, Teams and live recording share this limit).
- Trial: max 2 per day (same shared limit; 7 days → max 14).
- Up to 50 follow-up questions per account per day.
- Summaries remain available for 90 days.
- Live recording: recording duration counts 1:1 against your minutes bundle (wall clock), same as webcall.
- Zoom/Teams via Slack or Teams chat: count as a normal chat session.
A 30-minute recording therefore uses 30 minutes from your bundle. That is intentional: live recording is voice time, not a chat forfait.
FAQ
Can I live-record in Slack or on the phone?
No. Recording is only available in the CallMerlin app and desktop. After processing you can still ask for the summary and action items in Slack, Teams, chat or phone.
Do I need a separate Zoom or Teams connection?
Not for Live recording. You need the Meeting summaries PIN permission. Connecting Zoom or Microsoft 365 remains required if you also want to summarize cloud transcripts.
How fast is the summary ready?
Processing starts when you press Stop. The first summary usually takes 15 to 60 seconds, depending on length. Follow-ups are faster: Merlin uses the stored summary, not the full transcript.
What if the meeting is longer than 90 minutes?
The limit is 90 minutes or 50 MB per recording. Stop in time, or split long sessions. For long video meetings with a transcript, Zoom or Teams remains the better source.
Does this replace Zoom and Teams summaries?
No. Live recording fills the gap where there is no cloud transcript. If you do have a Zoom or Teams transcript, use that route. One PIN permission covers all three sources.
Which Zoom or Teams plans even include a transcript?
This is exactly why Live recording matters for many SMB teams. A cloud transcript is not a default gift on every account.
Zoom
- Free Zoom Basic: no cloud recording, so no audio transcript after the meeting (source: Zoom Support, audio transcription for cloud recordings).
- Zoom Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise: cloud recording + audio transcript possible when cloud recording and Create audio transcript are on.
- Indicative Zoom Workplace Pro pricing: about $15.99 per user per month (monthly) or less on annual billing (source: zoom.com Pro page; prices change). That is per host who may record.
- Extra: cloud storage is limited on Pro (indicatively 10 GB per license). Without the transcript setting, the recording stays silent text-wise.
Microsoft Teams
- Teams Free, Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or consumer Premium: meeting transcription is not included. Recording may work; transcription does not (Microsoft Q&A / support).
- Business Microsoft 365 with Teams (from Business Basic upward, plus Enterprise/Education): transcription yes, if the tenant admin turns Allow transcription on.
- Indicative Microsoft 365 Business Basic: about €6.07 per user per month excl. VAT on annual billing (microsoft.com/nl-nl, September 2026; prices change). Business Standard costs more.
- Automatic AI meeting recaps (Intelligent Recap) often need Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot on top. That is a separate add-on. CallMerlin builds the summary itself from a transcript or a live recording.
In short: without paid Zoom Pro+ or without a business Teams tenant with a transcription policy, you have no cloud transcript for Merlin to summarize. CallMerlin live recording does not need that Zoom/Teams transcript stack: app or desktop, microphone, PIN permission Meeting summaries.
Try it today
Grant your PIN users the Meeting summaries permission, open Record meeting in the app or desktop, and capture your next face-to-face conversation. Setup and limits are in the CallMerlin docs under Meeting summaries.
