Understanding transcription

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How Granola captures transcription

Granola passes audio directly from your microphone and system audio to our transcription provider for the purpose of transcription. It does not record or save audio or video at any point during the call.

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When does transcription begin?

For a calendar event, Granola begins transcribing only when you have opened a set of meeting notes, and only from the start time of the calendar event. You can choose to start transcription manually if you want to start it earlier.

It does not auto-transcribe any call without you manually clicking into it, either through the notification that pops up, or from the home screen.

If you have an impromptu meeting that is not attached to a calendar event, such a Slack huddle, transcription will begin as soon as you open the set of notes, or click on the impromptu meeting notification.

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Dancing bars

The green dancing bars show when Granola is actively transcribing.

If your network connection drops or Granola detects silence for too long, transcription may stop. You can resume transcription and open the live transcript window to check that it’s working again.

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When does transcription end?

Transcription ends under these circumstances:

• You manually end the transcription by clicking the stop button
• Granola automatically recognises that the meeting has ended
• Granola identifies that there has been a long period of silence

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Resuming transcription

If your transcription has ended, you can resume it by opening the transcription window and clicking resume in the top right hand corner.

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Viewing the transcript

Open your live transcript at any time during the meeting by clicking the “dancing bars” icon. This lets you:

• See what’s being captured in real-time
• Verify audio is working correctly
• Review recent discussion points

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Exporting the transcript

You can copy/paste the transcript to another platform by opening the transcript and clicking on the clipboard button.

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Speaker identification system

The speaker identification system in Granola uses advanced algorithms to differentiate between voices. Although it does not log speaker information explicitly, it does its best to maintain accuracy in identifying turn-taking and dialogue splits within the transcription output. We provide additional tools once the meeting has ended to help you feel confident in Granola’s output.

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In-person meetings

Granola works remarkably well for in-person meetings, but because the app uses system audio, the transcript will register everyone as just one person speaking, so it is a less reliable feature. However, while processing, Granola is fairly good at identifying who has spoken, and so the notes are still great - although if you want to help Granola out, you can be sure to use peoples’ names during the call.

Our iPhone app works even better for in-person meetings, with enhanced speaker identification. Download it from the App Store.

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Calendar meetings vs impromptu meetings

Granola recognizes two types of meetings:

• Calendar meetings are attached to an event in your calendar, they contain context about the meeting like the date, time, and attendees. You’ll receive a notification for these meetings as long as your calendar is properly integrated.
• Impromptu meetings are not attached to a calendar event, they are ad-hoc meetings that you may have, like a Slack huddle, or in-person with a colleague. Granola recognizes these meetings by noticing that your Mac is accessing your microphone, and will send a notification to open Granola.

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How can I query a live meeting?

Use cmnd+J to open the Ask Granola sidebar and ask questions of the transcript up til the point you’re asking. It can help you catch up on missed details or inform a question you need to ask. Sample questions might be:

• “In bullet points, what did I just miss?”
• “What did David say about SOC2 compliance at the start of the meeting?”
• “Can you list all the actions I’ve agreed to take in this meeting so far?”

When you use the in-meeting “Ask Granola” sidebar note that the chat does not persist if you close the note or switch away. The conversation is ephemeral and not saved in the final enhanced notes.

Tip: If you want to keep a record of an important Q&A response, copy/paste it into your typed notes before you exit the meeting view.

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Common Transcription Issues

Several issues can impact the quality and timeliness of Granola’s transcription:

• Quiet microphone input: If Granola is failing to pick up what you’re saying correctly, make sure your mic input volume is set to maximum through your computer’s system audio settings.
• Delayed transcripts: This can happen if there are temporary disconnects or slow internet speeds affecting the transcription feed’s processing time
• Intermittent transcription stops: This may occur due to hardware conflicts or system resource limitations on your computer. Check your system audio settings are correct, that you’re not accessing Granola through a restrictive VPN or that your company’s IT system isn’t too limited.
• Linguistic accuracy: When meetings are conducted in multiple languages or accents not supported by the current version of Granola, transcription may not accurately capture the dialogue

To make sure your transcription is being captured accurately, open up the transcription box during the call, and keep Granola as a sidebar during your call.

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FAQs

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How Granola captures transcription

Granola only records your iPhone’s microphone input. It can pick up on in-person conversations, or sound playing from other devices. Granola temporarily caches audio during the meeting - when transcription is completed, cached audio is deleted from all Granola and third-party systems.

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When does transcription begin?

Transcription begins when:

• Starting a new note
• Tapping ‘start notes’ for a meeting in progress from the list of upcoming meetings
• Tapping ‘take notes’ from a live activity prompt
• Tapping ‘start’ after opening an upcoming meeting

Granola does not auto-transcribe any meetings or conversations without you manually clicking to start taking notes.

If you start a note accidentally, click the X on the note in progress card to delete it.

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Transcription indicators

You can tell when Granola is transcribing in several ways:

• On a note in progress: dancing bars respond to mic input, and the duration timer is active
• On lock screen: live activity notification says ‘taking notes’ with the current duration
• In dynamic island: Granola icon visible with duration timer active

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When does transcription end?

Transcription ends when you:

• Click ‘end’ on the note card
• Click ‘end’ on the live activity notification

Once transcription ends, we’ll automatically generate your enhanced notes. It takes a bit longer than on desktop, so we’ll send you a notification when they’re ready.

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Pausing and resuming transcription

You can pause and resume transcription from the note in progress card. Your meeting notes won’t be generated until you click end to finalise the transcription.

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Speaker identification

The transcript will identify speakers as Speaker A, Speaker B, and so on, which should more accurately assign follow-up actions in enhanced notes.

We have found that in cases where the speaker identification may not be 100% accurate, the enhanced notes usually do a good job of understanding the nuances of the conversation.

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Calendar meetings vs impromptu meetings

Our iPhone app will notify you for any upcoming meetings - notes started from a meeting will be given the same title as the meeting invite.

Any notes started from the ‘new note’ button are given a title of ‘note to self’ and a brief summary of what was discussed.

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Common Transcription Issues

Several issues can impact the quality of Granola’s transcription on iPhone:

• Linguistic accuracy: When meetings are conducted in multiple languages or accents not supported by the current version of Granola, transcription may not accurately capture the dialogue
• Background noise: While background noise can affect transcription quality, the summary feature does a good job of picking out important points from the conversation

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FAQs