BrievaHow to transcribe a Google Meet call on a Mac without a bot
You can transcribe a Google Meet call on your Mac without a bot joining and with any Google account. Meet's own transcripts need certain paid Google Workspace plans and are saved to the organizer's Google Drive. Brieva transcribes the call on your Mac from the audio your browser plays, and nothing is uploaded.
Transcribe a Google Meet call with Brieva
- Install Brieva and let the first run finish. On first launch it downloads its AI models once (5 to 25 GB, depending on your Mac’s memory). macOS then asks for two permissions: Screen Recording, which is how Brieva hears the audio of other apps (it does not record your screen), and Microphone, for your own voice.
- Find the meeting in Brieva. Meetings from your calendar appear in Brieva’s week view once you paste in your calendar’s ICS link. For a call that is not on your calendar, click the + (New meeting) button and give it a title.
- Join the call in Google Meet as you normally would. Nothing changes on the Google Meet side: no bot, no add-in, no setting to turn on.
- Click Start Transcribing on the meeting. Brieva listens to the call audio your Mac plays, together with your microphone, and the transcript appears as people speak. When it asks “Who is this?”, name the voice; the name carries through to the summary.
- Click Stop Transcribing when the call ends. Brieva writes the summary, with decisions, action items and follow-ups, on your Mac. No audio file is saved; the transcript is the record.
What Google Meet offers built in
Meet can write a transcript itself, with these conditions:
- It is available on Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Workspace Individual. Personal Google accounts and other editions are not on Google’s list.
- It works on a computer or an Android device, in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
- When host management is on, only the host and co-hosts can turn transcripts on.
- Everyone in the meeting sees a Transcripts icon, and people who join get an on-screen notice.
- The transcript is saved in the organizer’s Google Drive and attached to the Calendar event, where invitees from the host’s organization can open it.
If your organization is on one of those plans and you host the meeting, the built-in transcript may be all you need. Brieva fits when you use a personal Google account, join someone else’s meeting, speak a language Meet does not transcribe, or want the transcript kept on your Mac instead of in Drive.
Tips for Google Meet
- Any browser works. Meet runs in your browser, and Brieva listens to the audio your Mac plays, so it works whichever browser you join from.
- Close other tabs that play sound. Brieva hears everything your Mac plays, including other browser tabs, so pause music and videos and silence notification sounds while the call runs.
- Connect Google Calendar once. Google Calendar's secret address in iCal format is the ICS link Brieva reads your meetings from. The ICS link guide in step 2 shows where to find it.
- Headphones are fine. Brieva takes the call audio inside your Mac, not from the speakers, so AirPods or a headset make no difference to the transcript.
Telling the other people
Brieva adds nothing to the call, so Google Meet shows no notice that a transcript is being made. Whether you should tell the other people that you take notes is a matter of local law and courtesy, so check what applies to you.
The details
Brieva needs an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later) on macOS 14.4 or newer. It costs US$25 once, with a 14-day free trial that needs no card, and transcribes Mandarin and 25 European languages. Everything runs on your Mac and works offline: the How Local AI works page explains how, and the FAQ answers the rest. Download Brieva and try it on your next Google Meet call.
The same steps for other meeting apps: Microsoft Teams and Zoom.