Built-in note-taker

Teams is recording your meeting: who can stop it, and where it goes

A Teams recording is made by Teams itself. Everybody is told when it starts, only people from the organiser's company can stop it, and it carries on even after the person who started it leaves.

Part of Microsoft's own app Read on 10 November 2026

How it got into your call

Turn it off

  1. More actions → Recording in the meeting controls. Recording stops both the recording and the live transcript; Transcribing stops the transcript only.
  2. The organiser and people from the organiser's company can stop it. People from another company, guests and anonymous attendees cannot.

Stop it in a call that is running

  1. Teams notifies everybody automatically when a recording starts.
  2. If you are a guest, ask the organiser or somebody from their company to stop it.
  3. It keeps going if the person who started it leaves. It stops when everybody has left; if somebody forgets to leave, it ends and restarts every four hours until they do.

What it keeps

For most meetings the recording is saved in the organiser's OneDrive. Guests and people from other companies can only watch it if it is shared with them.

In Microsoft's own words

Everybody is told
Microsoft“When you start recording a meeting, everyone will be notified automatically.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Stopping both
Microsoft“Recording to stop the recording and live transcription.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Stopping the transcript only
Microsoft“Transcribing to stop the live transcription only.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Outsiders cannot stop it
Microsoft“Person from another org or company No No”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
It does not leave with its starter
Microsoft“Recording continues even if the person who started the recording leaves the meeting.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
When it ends
Microsoft“The recording stops automatically once everyone leaves the meeting.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Somebody forgot to leave
Microsoft“If someone forgets to leave, the recording will end and automatically restart every four hours until the last participant leaves the meeting.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Compliance recording
Microsoft“If one of the participants has a policy for compliance recording, the meeting will be recorded according to the policy even if that participant is from another org.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Where it is kept
Microsoft“For most non-channel meetings, recordings are stored in the meeting organizer's OneDrive.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams
Who can watch it
Microsoft“For now, guests and external attendees can view the recording only if it's explicitly shared with them.”support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-find-meeting-recordings-in-microsoft-teams

Read on 10 November 2026 from Microsoft's own help pages. Something changed? Tell us.

A meeting with nothing to remove

On Meetful the notes are written by the meeting itself, from each person's own microphone, so no extra guest joins. Anybody can leave themselves out of the notes and stay in the call.

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Other notetakers

Outreach KaiaKaia is the meeting recorder inside Outreach, a sales platform. It shows up as a participant called “Kaia” unless the company renamed it, and once removed it cannot come back into that meeting.BuildBetterBuildBetter records calls for product and customer teams. Its bot joins Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex calls from its user's calendar, and its user can stop it mid-call, which makes it leave at once.BluedotBluedot can record a call from its user's Chrome extension or desktop app, with nothing in the call, or send a bot called “[name]'s AI NoteTaker”. Whether you are told about the extension is up to the person using it.Pipedrive Nova AI NotetakerNova is the AI in Pipedrive, a sales CRM. Its AI Notetaker joins Google Meet, Zoom and Teams calls as a visible participant — about two minutes early, even before its user arrives — and the host can remove it at any time.meetergo notetakermeetergo's notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls as a visible participant. Anybody in the call can type /stop in the chat: it leaves, and recording cannot be switched back on for that meeting.Zoom recordingWhen a Zoom meeting is being recorded, Zoom asks everybody for consent as they join or as recording starts — and the only way to say no is to leave. Only the host or a co-host can stop it.

The whole list →

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