How to keep Otter from automatically recording your meetings

Otter.ai is without doubt one of the extra well-liked machine-powered transcription apps — and it’s simple to see why. Its algorithms do a great job of transcribing speech, together with differentiating and figuring out the individuals talking. And should you use its Otter Assistant characteristic, it is going to connect to your calendar and mechanically transcribe Zoom, Groups, and Meet conferences which are on that calendar — even should you don’t attend.

Whereas that could possibly be helpful — in case your boss asks you what occurred at a gathering, you may have the data even should you have been enjoying Wordle on the time — it may be an issue. For instance, what should you forgot (or didn’t discover) that the automated perform was on, and it recorded a gathering which may comprise delicate info or was speculated to be personal? (There have been a number of on-line complaints about simply this.) Recording such a gathering isn’t simply impolite however would possibly break the principles for the gathering — even should you didn’t understand what Otter was doing.

It’s doable that you will have enabled Otter Assistant with out realizing it. Again round February 2023, Otter launched the brand new characteristic with a pop-up setup web page that invited you to allow Otter Assistant, which might mechanically take notes for any Zoom, Meet, or Groups conferences in your calendar. It included a toggle that supplied to mechanically share assembly notes with the individuals listed in your calendar occasion.

Should you (like me) have been in a rush to attend a gathering, you will have shrugged, clicked on “Allow Otter Assistant,” and left it at that — with out realizing that you just had simply given Otter permission to mechanically document your entire conferences. (And should you didn’t untoggle the “share assembly notes” change, you might need additionally gotten some puzzled emails from different assembly attendees.)

When you can’t take away Otter Assistant, you may simply disable it in varied other ways. The very first thing to do is verify to see if Otter Assistant is linked to your calendar. Whether it is, then you may disconnect it. (Or join it, if that’s what you need.)

Otter might be linked to a Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or an iOS calendar. Right here’s the right way to verify in case your account is linked to certainly one of your calendars:

• In your predominant Otter web page, click on in your profile icon on the highest left of the web page.
• Click on on Account settings, and choose the Apps tab.
• On the backside of the webpage, you’ll see the Join calendars & contacts subhead. You’ll see subheads for Google and Microsoft.

• If any of your calendars are linked to Otter, you will notice the e-mail related to that tackle beneath the suitable ecosystem. (For instance, a Gmail tackle can be below the Google subhead.) You possibly can then click on on the Disconnect hyperlink to disconnect that calendar from Otter.

After all, should you need Otter to mechanically cowl a calendar occasion, it’s simply arrange by clicking Add subsequent to your most well-liked ecosystem on that very same web page. However there’s a better strategy to do it.

You possibly can join your Google or Microsoft calendars or your Zoom conferences straight from Otter’s homepage.

• On the homepage, you’ll see a calendar on the proper facet with three buttons — Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Zoom Conferences — beneath it.
• Click on on the button for the service that you just wish to connect with, and provides the mandatory permissions.

In response to Otter’s assist web page, when you’ve linked your calendar, then “by default, Otter Assistant will mechanically be part of your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Groups conferences.” Should you don’t need it to mechanically be part of your conferences, you may disable that perform so that it’ll solely document conferences should you allow it to.

• As described above, go to the Account settings web page.
• This time, click on the Conferences tab.
• Underneath the Otter Assistant subhead, search for Auto-join all conferences, and toggle it to the Off place.

• Faucet the three parallel strains within the upper-left nook, after which faucet your ID field.
• Choose Assembly settings and search for Otter Assistant. Relying on whether or not you’re utilizing iOS or Android, the obtainable options might fluctuate, however in each instances, you may toggle Auto-join all conferences on or off.

Otter has a Chrome extension that detects if you open a digital assembly hyperlink in your browser and affords to document, transcribe, and summarize your assembly every time your assembly begins by way of an computerized pop-up window. If you wish to use Otter to document your conferences on demand quite than mechanically (and you utilize a Chromium-based browser corresponding to Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge), this can be the easiest way to do it.

As soon as you put in the extension, then if you begin a gathering with Google Meet or with Zoom (utilizing the Chrome browser), a pop-up will seem inviting you to “get computerized assembly abstract” by enabling Otter Assistant.

There are two or three various things you are able to do at this level:

• You possibly can click on Add Otter Assistant to show the characteristic on for this assembly and permit it to mechanically document your assembly.
• You possibly can verify (or uncheck) a field that permits Otter Assistant to affix all different conferences. (The primary time the field got here up for me, the field was checked, so concentrate should you don’t need it to be enabled for your entire conferences.)
• Should you’re utilizing Otter with Google Meet quite than Zoom, you will have the choice to click on on File on my system as an alternative to be able to manually document your assembly.