Google Meet interview transcription: built-in and bot-free options

Google Meet can transcribe an interview itself if your organization is on an eligible Google Workspace edition: the host starts Transcripts, everyone sees a Transcripts icon, and a Google Doc lands in the organizer's Drive after the call, openable by invitees from the organizer's organization. Without an eligible edition, or when someone else hosts, a desktop app that transcribes your computer's audio does the same job without adding anything to the meeting.

This page covers Meet's three built-in options (Transcripts, recording and Take notes for me), who can see each output, how long it is kept, what happens when a bot joins, and consent. Google behavior is cited from Google Meet Help and Google Workspace Admin Help as of September 2026.

Your options at a glance

Meet Transcripts: the built-in option

From Google Meet Help's Transcripts article:

• Editions: Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Workspace Individual.
• Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
• Devices: a computer or an Android device. Google says the feature is only available there, so an interviewer joining from an iPhone cannot start it.
• How to start: Meeting tools > Transcribe > Start transcription.
• Who can start it: with Host Management on, only the host and co-hosts; with it off, people in the host's organization.
• What participants see: a Transcripts icon at the top right for everyone in the meeting.
• Automatic start: a host can set transcripts to start automatically, but they will not start until the host or a co-host joins on the web.
• Storage: both the organization's Drive and the host's Drive need enough space, or the transcript is not saved.

Who can read the transcript afterwards

After the meeting, Google emails a link to the host, any co-hosts and the person who turned Transcripts on. The Doc is saved in the organizer's Drive in the Google Meet folder, and all invitees in the host's organization can open it. If there are more than 200 invitees in the host's organization, only the host, co-hosts and the person who started it have access.

In an interview, that access rule has consequences worth thinking through before you click Start:

• Everyone internal on the calendar event can read the whole interview. That includes a scheduling coordinator, an assistant who manages the hiring manager's calendar, or a panelist who dropped out. Keep interview invites to the people who need the transcript.
• The candidate is outside the organization, so they do not get access unless someone shares the Doc with them.
• The organizer owns the file. If a coordinator creates the event, the transcript sits in the coordinator's Drive, not the interviewer's. Decide who should organize interview events.
• A transcript is a candidate record. Moving the Doc into a shared folder changes who can see it, and pasting it into an ATS creates a copy with its own access and retention.

Meet recording, if you need video

From Google Meet Help's recording article:

• Plans: Business Plus, Business Standard, Essentials, Education Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Starter, plus Google One subscribers with 2 TB or more of storage.
• Who can record: the host, co-hosts, and people in the host's organization when Host Management is off. People outside the organization and people on the mobile app or a phone cannot control recording.
• Notice: participants are notified when the recording starts or stops.
• Where it goes: the organizer's Drive, in the Google Meet folder. The organizer and the person who started it get an email with the link, and participants in the organizer's organization automatically get access.
• Captions: a "Record captions" option includes captions in the recording.
• Limits: computers and Android only, and a maximum of 8 hours per meeting.

One change matters for interview video in particular. Google's admin article on recording says that starting April 30, 2026, users in your organization with Viewer or Commenter access to new Meet recordings can copy and download them. The admin console setting that governs this is Let users download and copy Meet recordings. If every internal participant gets access automatically, and access now includes download, a candidate's interview video can end up on laptops you do not manage. Ask your admin how it is set.

For most interviews, the transcript alone is enough. It is smaller, searchable, and it is what you quote on a scorecard. Record video only if you have a specific reason to keep it.

Take notes for me: notes, not a transcript

Google Meet Help's Take notes for me article describes an AI note-taker built into Meet. It needs an eligible Workspace edition or Google AI plan and supports the same eight languages as Transcripts. Meet informs all participants that notes are being taken, and a pencil icon shows on everyone's screen. Notes are saved in the organizer's Drive.

Two points decide whether it suits an interview:

• Who receives the notes. The organizer can share them with all invited guests, internal guests only, or hosts and co-hosts only. "All invited guests" includes the candidate. For interviews, choose hosts and co-hosts only.
• What the notes are. A summary, and Google warns it can be incomplete, inaccurate or not generated, for example when a meeting is shorter than 15 minutes. You cannot quote a summary on a scorecard as the candidate's words.

The notes also do not map answers to your competencies. Treat them as a reminder of what was discussed, and go to the transcript for evidence.

Retention: how long Meet keeps interview transcripts

Meet files are Drive files, so unless a retention rule says otherwise, they stay until someone deletes them. According to Google Vault Help's Meet retention article, Meet-specific retention is turned off by default and Meet data follows your Drive retention rules. An admin can set Meet-specific rules covering original recordings, attendance logs, notes taken by Gemini, chat, Q&A, transcripts and polls associated with recorded meetings. When a rule's period expires, the admin chooses whether to purge only items already in trash or to remove all expired items from users' Drives.

Interview records have their own clock. Federal rules for many U.S. employers require keeping hiring records for a period (see the EEOC's recordkeeping page), and privacy law in the UK and EU pushes the other way, toward deleting what you no longer need. Set a schedule deliberately rather than inheriting "forever" from Drive; the reasoning is covered in recording interviews under UK GDPR and in the records section of structured interviews without an ATS.

A ticket you can send your Workspace admin:

Subject: Google Meet settings for recruiting interviews

For the recruiting organizational unit [name], please confirm or set:

1. Meet video settings > Meeting transcripts: On
2. "Meetings are transcribed by default": Off, and "Meetings are
   recorded by default": Off, so interviewers ask candidates first
3. Recording ("Let people record their meetings"): [On/Off]
4. "Let users download and copy Meet recordings": Off
5. Vault: a Meet-specific retention rule for this unit of [N] days,
   covering recordings, transcripts and Gemini notes, removing expired
   items from users' Drives
6. "Gemini takes notes by default": Off; and if note sharing can be
   set centrally, hosts and co-hosts only

Also: confirm whether recruiters may install a desktop note-taking app,
and which ones are approved.

Bot-free options that do not depend on your Workspace edition

Meet's own tools stop at the edges of the host's account. If the candidate sends their own Meet link, a client hosts on a personal Gmail account, or your company is on an edition without Transcripts, none of the built-in options are available to you. Two other routes add no participant:

• A desktop app captures your computer's audio (the candidate) and your microphone (you) and transcribes both. It works on any Meet call you can hear, including ones you do not host, and on phone screens routed through the computer.
• A browser extension captures the Meet tab. It suits people who always join Meet in the same browser, and it does not cover calls outside the browser.

Interview Signal is a desktop app of the first kind: no bot joins, transcripts and notes stay on your computer, and a question guide built from the job description ticks off must-ask questions as they are covered. Other bot-free tools are compared in AI note-takers without a bot.

Whichever you use on Meet, test these once:

1. Join a test call in the browser you use for interviews, with headphones on.
2. Confirm no new participant appears in the Meet people list.
3. Have a colleague say a number, a company name and a date; check the transcript gets all three.
4. Check the pause control stops capture immediately.

What happens when a bot joins a Meet interview

A note-taking bot joins Meet as a participant and shows in the people list, usually under a vendor's name. Whether it gets in without the host noticing depends on the meeting's access type. Google's meeting access guide describes three:

When a client or hiring manager hosts, their access type decides, and a knock from an unfamiliar name in the first minute of an interview is easy to deny or, worse, to admit without explanation while the candidate watches.

Consent on a Meet interview

The Transcripts icon and recording notification tell the candidate something is happening. They do not ask. Some states require every party's agreement to record, and whether a transcript counts as a recording is a question for your lawyer, not an assumption; see is it legal to record a job interview and two-party consent states. Ask before you start, whichever tool you use:

Before we start, I'd like to turn on transcription so I can focus on
our conversation rather than typing. The transcript is only used for
this hiring process and isn't shared with anyone outside the hiring team.
Is that OK with you? If not, that's fine; I'll take notes by hand and it
won't affect your application.

If they decline, do not start Transcripts, or pause your capture app, and note that they declined. If automatic transcription is on for the meeting, stop it as soon as you join. The consent script has short and strict versions, and the consent guide has notice wording by jurisdiction.