An AI assistant for Zoom that never enters the meeting
Whisperer runs beside Zoom rather than inside it. It hears the call through your computer's own audio, helps from a window above the screen, and changes nothing about the meeting itself — not the participant list, not the recording state, not what the host has to allow.
Zoom desktop or browser · macOS and Windows
- Waits in the lobby until the host admits it
- Shows up in the participant list for everyone
- Often needs the app approved for the organisation
- Guests can see that the call is being processed
- Nothing to admit, because nothing is joining
- The participant list is exactly what it would be
- No Zoom app to install or approve
- What the other side sees is unchanged
Setup
Three steps, once
There is nothing Zoom-specific in any of them, which is the point: the same setup covers every other service you call on.
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Allow the microphone
This is your own voice. Without it the transcript has the other side and not you, and the answers lose half the conversation.
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Allow system audio
On macOS this is the Screen Recording permission — it is how the operating system exposes the sound of other applications, not a request to watch your screen. On Windows nothing extra is needed; just make sure Zoom is playing through the default output device.
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Start the session before the call
Press play in Whisperer, then join the Zoom meeting as usual. Check that both labels appear in the transcript within the first few sentences.
During
What you get on a Zoom call specifically
Zoom is where screen sharing happens most, and that is the feature the overlay was designed around: when you share, the assistant is not in the frame.
Limits
Where this approach costs you something
Running outside the meeting buys independence and gives up two things. Both are worth knowing before you rely on it.
A finished recording can be uploaded: the Meetings section takes one file up to 25 MB — mp3, m4a, wav, ogg, flac, aac, plus mp4 and webm, from which the audio track is used. What is missing is bulk upload of a whole archive; and it spends the same minutes a live call does.
The streams are your microphone and everyone else. On a call with eight participants the transcript separates you from them, but not them from each other.
Questions
Zoom-specific questions
Do I need the host to enable anything?
No. Whisperer does not use Zoom's recording or transcription features and does not connect to your Zoom account, so there is no host setting involved and nothing for an administrator to approve.
Does it work in the Zoom browser client?
Yes. Whisperer listens to system audio, and the browser plays the call through the same output as the desktop app. Nothing about the mechanism changes.
Will anyone see a notetaker in the participant list?
No, because nothing joins. This is the practical difference between an overlay and a bot: there is no guest to admit and no name in the list to explain.
Can I upload a finished recording?
Yes. In the Meetings section you pick the file with a button or drag it in — one at a time, up to 25 MB: mp3, m4a, wav, ogg, flac, aac, plus mp4 and webm, from which the audio is taken. From there it goes exactly like a live call: transcript, meeting map, decisions and tasks. A whole archive cannot be uploaded in one go, and in no-logs mode upload is unavailable — nothing is stored there by design.
Zoom is playing through my headphones. Does that break it?
On macOS, no: the Screen Recording permission captures application audio regardless of the output device. On Windows, loopback takes the default output device, so the headphones need to be the default rather than a secondary device.
Test it against yourself
Start a Zoom meeting with no one else in it, play something with speech, and confirm that the other-side label appears. That single check settles the whole setup.