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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

Alter uses Pyannote 4 (Community-1), state-of-the-art AI for speaker diarization.

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Speaker name matching (beta93+)

When cloud transcription is available, enable Find speakers names (experimental) in Settings → Voice → Automation. Alter can suggest real names instead of generic “Speaker 1” labels:
  • 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

Perfect ID

Industry-leading speaker identification

Search by Speaker

Find specific contributions

Track Input

See who said what

Filter Speakers

Focus on specific participants

Manual Rename

Customize speaker names

100% Offline

All processing 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