Transcription quality depends on the audio Clarify receives. These tips apply to both the bot recorder and the macOS desktop recorder.
What affects accuracy most
Background noise is the biggest factor. Static, fans, keyboard clicking, echoing rooms, and ambient conversation all reduce accuracy and can cause speaker labels to misattribute or break mid-sentence.
Overlapping speech confuses speaker separation. When two people talk simultaneously, the model may merge both voices into one speaker label or drop words.
Low-volume participants — dial-in callers, people on poor connections, or quiet speakers — produce less reliable transcripts. The model works from the audio mix the meeting platform provides.
Bot recorder tips
The bot receives audio from the meeting platform's mix — the same mix all participants hear.
Ask participants to use headphones. Speakers create an audio feedback loop that degrades the entire meeting mix. Headphones eliminate this.
Mute when not speaking, especially in noisy environments. Ambient noise from multiple open mics compounds.
Bluetooth headsets can introduce compression artifacts. USB or wired headsets produce cleaner audio.
Phone dial-in participants typically sound worse in the transcript — their audio is compressed more aggressively than VoIP.
Room acoustics matter for in-person meetings. Hard surfaces (glass, concrete) cause reverb. A carpeted room with soft furnishings produces a cleaner recording.
macOS desktop recorder tips
The desktop recorder captures audio directly from your machine — what you hear combined with your microphone.
Use "Join and record" instead of "Quick Record" for scheduled meetings. It waits for the meeting window to be detected, improving both video capture and audio setup.
Keep the participant panel visible. The app identifies speakers by reading display names on screen. If the participant panel is hidden or minimized, some speaker labels may be missing.
Keep the meeting window in the foreground while recording. Switching away doesn't stop the recording, but window-detection for speaker names relies on the meeting UI being on screen.
Language detection
Both recorders detect the spoken language automatically — no configuration needed.
Bot recorder: Multi-language transcription on Growth plan. Free, Starter, and Teams transcribe in English only.
macOS desktop recorder: Supports English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese on all plans.
Summaries and action items are generated in the language of the transcript.
See Multi-language meeting support for full details and plan requirements.
Limitations
Transcripts can't be manually corrected or re-edited in Clarify. Accuracy reflects the audio quality at record time.
Existing recordings can't be re-transcribed with different settings. Summaries can be regenerated (see Meeting summary templates), but the underlying transcript is fixed.
Speaker labels depend on display names in the meeting platform. If a participant used an alias, their label will show what the platform reported.