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Never take meeting notes again. Alter records, transcribes, and helps you extract action items automatically.

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Automatic Meeting Recording

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Smart Meeting Detection

Alter automatically detects when you join meetings on:

Zoom

Instant detection

Google Meet

Automatic recognition

Microsoft Teams

Full support

Other Platforms

Most conferencing apps
When a meeting is detected, Alter displays a subtle notification giving you the option to record or skip.

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Auto-Record Settings

1

Enable auto-record

Settings → Voice → Auto Record Meetings
2

Set threshold

Define minimum length (default: 120 seconds)
3

Configure notifications

Choose to skip or record via notification
4

Enable keep-awake

Prevent Mac from sleeping during long meetings
Auto-Record notification

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Keep-Awake Functionality

When enabled in Settings > Voice, Alter prevents your Mac from sleeping during recordings:

Automatic

Engages when recording starts

Screen Active

Ensures uninterrupted recording

Smart Release

Automatically releases when done

Toggle Control

Enable/disable as needed
Perfect for: Long conference calls, webinars, presentations where screen sleep would interrupt recording

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Manual Recording

You can also manually control recordings:
1

Start recording

Click the mic icon in QuickHub (or the notch when QuickHub Mode is off) — it turns into a red recording button
2

Monitor

The mic animates during transcription
3

Stop

Click the red button to finish

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Speaker identification

Meeting transcripts go through three layers: diarization (who spoke when), speaker identity (saved voices on your Mac), and optional cloud name matching (calendar and Contacts hints).

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Speaker diarization

Alter uses Pyannote 4 (Community-1) for speaker diarization — state-of-the-art AI that separates speakers and labels them as Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on. Diarization runs locally on your Mac. When the diarization engine is Nemotron 3, Alter still derives voiceprints from Pyannote so saved voices stay compatible across engines.

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Speaker identity (saved voices)

Speaker identity remembers voices you have named before and applies those names automatically in future meetings — without sending voice data to the cloud.
100% local. Saved voiceprints live in ~/Library/Application Support/Alter/SpeakerIdentity/. They are biometric data and stay on your Mac like the rest of Application Support.

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How matching works

After diarization, Alter compares each speaker’s voiceprint against your saved voices. When a match is confident, generic labels like Speaker 1 are replaced with the saved name before the transcript is shown. If two saved voices could both match the same speaker, Alter opens a review sheet instead of guessing. You can listen to a clip of that speaker, pick the right name for this meeting, and optionally update saved voices for the future.

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How voices get saved

Alter builds saved voices from meeting audio — you never configure them in a separate settings screen.
1

Rename a speaker in the transcript

Open a meeting transcript, click a speaker chip, and choose a real name from the picker (or type one). Names with a waveform icon already have a saved voice.
2

Choose scope when prompted

This meeting only renames the transcript. Future meetings also saves or updates the voiceprint so Alter recognizes that person next time.
3

Review ambiguous matches

When Alter is unsure, a review sheet appears after transcription. Listen to the clip, confirm the name, and choose whether to keep, merge, or forget related saved voices.
Saved voices can also be created automatically when Find speakers names (experimental) resolves a generic label to a real name from calendar or Contacts data.

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Managing saved voices in a transcript

Updating saved voices affects future recognition only. Past transcripts keep the names they had when you saved them.

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Limitations

  • Requires diarization with usable voice data — if a meeting has no voiceprint for a speaker, you can still rename the transcript but cannot save that voice for the future.
  • Each saved identity keeps up to five voice samples; very distinct speaking styles may not fit in one identity.
  • Alter applies a saved name only when the match is confident. Close calls are sent to review instead of auto-renamed.
  • There is no global list of saved voices in Settings yet — manage them from meeting transcripts and conflict review.

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Cloud speaker name matching (beta93+)

When cloud transcription is available, enable Find speakers names (experimental) in Settings → Voice → Automation. This optional layer suggests real names from your calendar and Contacts when generic labels remain after local voice matching:
  • Calendars for speaker matching — Choose which Apple calendars to use. Alter matches the recording to calendar events and attendee lists.
  • Contacts for speaker matching — Grant Contacts access so attendee emails resolve to display names.
  • Manual calendar event selection — Link a transcript to a specific calendar event when auto-match is wrong.
1

Open Voice settings

Settings → Voice → Automation
2

Enable speaker matching

Turn on Find speakers names (experimental)
3

Select calendars

Pick the calendars that hold your work meetings (or select all)
4

Grant Contacts

Allow Contacts when prompted for attendee name resolution
Cloud matching requires login and internet access. Local diarization and speaker identity still run on your Mac first.

Saved voices

Recognize people you have named before, fully offline

Search by speaker

Find specific contributions across meetings

Filter speakers

Focus on one participant in a long transcript

Manual rename

Correct names and teach Alter new voices

Calendar hints

Optional cloud matching from events and Contacts

On-device processing

Diarization and voiceprints stay on your Mac

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Cloud transcription (Soniox V5)

When you use the Cloud voice processor, Alter routes meeting transcription through the Soniox V5 engine (beta96+) for higher accuracy on accents and technical vocabulary. Cloud processing requires login and fair-use eligibility; local Whisper Pro and Parakeet options remain fully offline.

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Fast Transcription with Whisper Pro

10-Second Transcripts

Complete transcription regardless of meeting length

Local Processing

Maximum privacy, on-device

Cloud Option

Regenerate with cloud for enhanced accuracy

Productivity Boost

Ideal for back-to-back meetings

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Get value from transcripts

Once a meeting is transcribed, ask Alter for structured follow-up:

Get action items

“List all action items from this meeting and who is responsible for each”

Summarize decisions

“What decisions were made? List them with context”

Find specific topics

“What did we say about the budget, timeline, or API?”

Create follow-up email

“Draft a follow-up email summarizing this meeting for the team”
Search across meetings: type # in the prompt box to search past conversations, or > for meeting transcript history.

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Live Captions

Live Captions brings real-time transcription to every app on your Mac – like YouTube subtitles, but system-wide.

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How It Works

Captions appear instantly as audio plays through any application:
Works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Safari, podcasts, streaming – any Mac app
Recognizes and transcribes multiple languages automatically
All transcription happens on your Mac for complete privacy

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Using Live Captions

Toggle: Press Cmd + Shift + ↓ to show/hide captions Requirements:
1

Go to Settings

Navigate to Settings > Voice
2

Select processor

Choose Local Pro
3

Download model

Get Parakeet V3 (recommended for best performance)

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Use Cases

Meetings

Real-time subtitles during video calls

Video Content

Watch YouTube and streams with captions

Podcasts

Read along with audio content

Accessibility

Essential for hard-of-hearing users

Language Learning

Practice listening comprehension

Note-taking

Capture key points visually

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Managing Transcripts

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Editing Content

Fix Errors

Correct recognition mistakes

Rename

Better organization with custom titles

Summaries

Customize meeting highlights

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Search Capabilities

Search across all transcripts by:

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Timestamps & Navigation

Jump to Moments

Click timestamps to navigate

Visual Timeline

Navigate long recordings efficiently

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Meeting Reports

Generate comprehensive reports with:
1

Action Items

Automatically extracted tasks and follow-ups
2

Key Decisions

Important conclusions and agreements
3

Speaker Summary

Input from each participant

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Video Tutorials

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Real-time Meeting Transcripts

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Speaker Search & Editable Transcripts

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Speaker Identification

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File Storage

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Location

All recordings and transcripts are stored locally at:
100% Private: Everything stays on your Mac. No cloud storage unless you explicitly choose cloud processing.
If you uninstall Alter with a cleanup tool such as CleanMyMac, it can remove your local transcripts and related data. To switch versions, replace the app in Applications instead. See Reinstall or downgrade Alter safely.

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Management Options

Finder Access

Open folder directly from Settings

Built-in Search

Find transcripts in Alter

Export

Save or share as needed

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Recovery

Crashed during recording? Check /private/var/folders and search for files named “recording”

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Smart Features

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Context Awareness

Alter provides intelligent suggestions:

Recording Prompts

Suggests recording when joining meetings

Report Generation

Offers summaries when stopping recordings

Action Extraction

Identifies follow-up tasks automatically

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Productivity Enhancements

  • Auto-summaries: Key points generated automatically
  • Task Tracking: Extract and organize action items
  • Calendar Integration: Connect with your schedule

Memory

Save and recall useful details from meetings. Use Memory Catch-Up to seed facts from recent transcripts.

Dictation

Voice processing options

Settings

Configure meeting recording and speaker matching

Keyboard Shortcuts

Meeting-related shortcuts