# Call transcription with Granola

Published: 2025-08-13T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wow.pjh.is/journal/call-transcription-with-granola

I use [Granola](https://granola.ai/) for call transcription.

![Granola summary](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/granola-summary.jpeg)

## Things I like

1. **You don't have to invite it to meetings.** It just runs on your computer (Mac or Windows) and offers to start automatically when you join a call. No faff, and **no ominous black boxes in the video call**. Just be sure to seek consent.[^1]

[^1]: I usually do this [via my call booking form](https://share.cleanshot.com/9yB2XBSx8KxWKJkHlHTT). You can also use Granola's [automatic consent message](https://help.granola.ai/article/automatic-consent-messaging) feature.

2. **Works for any app, including WhatsApp and Signal.**

3. **Summary notes within 3-5 seconds of the call.** And they're easy to edit manually.

4. **Solid iPhone and iPad apps** to record in-person meetings.

5. **One-click share by link, email, copy-paste, Slack etc.** Links can be "visible to anyone with the link" or "visible to anyone on my team".

6. **Easy to customise the summary format** for different call types (e.g. team meeting, user interview).

7. **Easy to enter your own notes.** You can do it during the meeting, and they'll influence the summary. [^2]

[^2]: I never do this, preferring my [Google Docs pattern](https://notes.pjh.is/useful/The+meeting+doc+and+person+log).

8. **Folders:** you can chat with a folder full of notes, and share the folder to your team.

9. **One-click to draft a follow-up email.**

10. **Integrations** so you can automatically send summaries to Notion, Slack, Zapier, etc.

11. **Audio and video is not saved.** I've no reason to store this data after the transcription.

12. **"What did I miss?"**: During the call you can press "What did I miss?" to get a summary of the key points from the last few minutes.

## Things I don't like

1. **Call summaries are good, but not best in class.** I prefer the summaries I get from copy-pasting the raw transcript into ChatGPT GPT-5 Thinking.

2. **Hard to copy the raw transcript:** requires three clicks!

3. **Transcription accuracy is good, but it's not best in class.**

4. **Default privacy setting:** when you install, your meeting notes are "visibile to anyone with the link" by default. You can change this in the settings.

## Screencast demo

[Loom video](https://www.loom.com/share/afc5951412ca45dcbcffcc182ce8c78e)

## Limitations

1. **There's no Android app.**

2. **Transcription happens in the cloud**, not locally on your computer. That's fine for most calls, but not for ultra-sensitive stuff.

## The competition

There are loads of options. The strongest competitors include [Google Meet's built-in feature](https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9308681?hl=en), [Circleback](https://circleback.ai/), [Fathom](https://fathom.video/), [Fireflies](https://fireflies.ai/) and [Otter.ai](https://otter.ai/).

Some people I know *love*  Granola. I've not heard acquaintances express *love* for the competitors.

Use cases vary, though. Granola is a non-starter if you need to save the audio or video.

It's hard to track this crowded space: if you try other platforms, I'd love to [hear how you get on](mailto:wow@pjh.is).