Notta is taking a big swing at meeting transcription privacy with the launch of Privacy Mode for its desktop app. Announced July 3, 2026, the beta feature performs all transcription locally on a Windows or Mac PC, eliminating the need to invite a third-party bot into virtual meetings.
It is a direct response to one of the most persistent complaints about AI meeting assistants: that a bot sitting in on your calls feels invasive. With Privacy Mode, Notta captures system audio directly from your computer, runs the speech-to-text engine on-device, and never sends raw audio or transcripts to the cloud. No bot appears in the participant list. No audio leaves the machine.
How Privacy Mode works
The feature is built into the Notta Desktop client, currently available as a beta. When a meeting starts—on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or any other videoconferencing tool that outputs audio through the computer’s speakers—users can toggle Privacy Mode from the app’s interface. Notta then records the system audio stream locally. The transcription appears in real time within the Notta window, and the finished text file is saved only on the user’s device.
Crucially, the entire process runs without a cloud roundtrip. That distinguishes Notta’s approach from older workflows where even “local” recording would upload audio for server-side processing. According to Notta’s announcement, the on-device AI model handles everything from speech detection to punctuation, and the company has trained it to work across multiple languages—though Notta has not yet disclosed precisely which models or language packages are included in the beta.
System requirements remain modest. Because the transcription engine leverages the CPU and, where available, a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), most modern Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines can run it without noticeable slowdown. Notta recommends at least 8 GB of RAM and a recent-generation processor, but early testers on Reddit have reported smooth performance on older hardware as well.
For Mac users, Privacy Mode similarly uses Apple Silicon’s Neural Engine when present, falling back to CPU processing on Intel-based Macs. The beta installer for both platforms is available directly from Notta’s website; it is not yet listed on the Microsoft Store or Mac App Store.
What local transcription means for you
For everyday users
If you are an individual who takes meeting notes or wants a searchable record of conversations without worrying about where your data ends up, Privacy Mode removes the privacy calculus that has long accompanied AI note-takers. There is no chance of a bot recording something it should not because it is not in the call at all. Your audio and text stay on your own hardware.
This also eliminates the awkward moment when an AI assistant announces itself upon joining a meeting, a behavior that often prompted hosts to manually remove bots or ask participants to disable their tools. With Notta in Privacy Mode, nobody else in the call knows you are transcribing.
For business users and compliance officers
Enterprises that handle sensitive data—healthcare, finance, legal—frequently ban third-party meeting bots outright due to GDPR, HIPAA, or internal security policies. A tool that performs all transcription on the endpoint device greatly expands the scenarios where AI notes are permissible. It could allow a doctor to transcribe a telehealth visit without risking protected health information leaving the local environment, or permit a financial advisor to keep audit-trail notes while remaining compliant with data residency rules.
However, IT administrators will want to see detailed security documentation before rolling it out broadly. Notta has stated that because no data is transmitted, the feature effectively reduces its attack surface to that of any other local application. A forthcoming enterprise admin guide is expected to cover group policy management for the desktop client, including the ability to disable cloud-based features entirely and enforce Privacy Mode by default.
For developers and power users
Those who already orchestrate complex workflows with APIs, Zapier integrations, or local LLMs can chain Notta’s local transcripts with other on-device tools—running summaries through a locally hosted language model, for instance, without ever exposing text to a remote service. While the beta does not yet expose a local API, the fact that transcripts are written as plain-text files in a designated folder suggests that automated post-processing scripts are a script away.
The long road to private meeting notes
The rise of remote work brought with it a flood of AI meeting assistants: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, and Notta itself all launched services that join meetings as virtual participants, capture audio, and upload it to the cloud for transcription and summarization. Adoption was swift, but so was pushback. Headlines about bots recording confidential conversations, lawyers inadvertently leaking privileged material, and companies banning these tools became common.
Microsoft and Google responded by baking transcription into their own meeting platforms, with key difference: the processing happens within the company’s cloud, not a third-party’s, and the bot is a first-party service that administrators can control. But those solutions still rely on server-side processing. The truly private option—local, device-based transcription—remained elusive for most users until advances in on-device AI made it practical.
Apple quietly laid the groundwork with on-device dictation improvements in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, and Windows 11’s Voice Access and live captions demonstrated that local speech recognition had become reliable enough for everyday use. Notta’s move is the first time a third-party transcription service has fully embraced an offline-only mode that matches the convenience of its cloud counterpart.
Getting started with Notta Desktop beta
If you want to test Privacy Mode today, the steps are straightforward:
- Visit Notta’s official website and navigate to the Desktop beta download page. You will need a Notta account, which can be created for free.
- Install the application for Windows (64-bit) or macOS. The installer does not require administrative privileges, but for audio capture, Windows will prompt for microphone access. Note: even though Privacy Mode records system audio, the operating system may treat this as a microphone permission.
- Launch the app and sign in. The interface will show a prominent “Privacy Mode” switch.
- Before a meeting, toggle Privacy Mode on. Then click the record button. Notta will ask you to confirm which audio output device to capture. Select your speakers or headset.
- Join your meeting as usual. Notta runs silently in the background, and the transcription appears in real time in its window—or remains minimized if you prefer to focus on the call.
- When the meeting ends, stop the recording. The transcript is saved locally as a .txt file in a dedicated folder that you can configure in settings. From there, you can edit, share, or archive it as you see fit.
A few caveats to keep in mind during the beta:
- Language support may be limited. Notta’s cloud service handles 100+ languages, but the local model likely starts with a smaller subset. Check Notta’s release notes for the current list.
- Accuracy may vary depending on audio quality. Since the feature captures system audio, any network glitches or compressed audio codecs can affect transcription quality.
- The current beta does not support simultaneous cloud sync. If you later turn Privacy Mode off and record a meeting in normal mode, that recording will be uploaded to Notta’s servers. The two modes are intentionally separate.
- Notta has not provided a timeline for the beta to end or for the feature to graduate to a stable release. Expect regular updates with bug fixes and model improvements.
What’s next
Local processing is clearly the direction the industry is heading. Apple is already touting on-device AI as a privacy pillar, and Windows is building a framework for third-party developers to tap into NPUs through DirectML. Notta’s beta is an early example of how those hardware advances can translate into a tangible, user-facing benefit—no buzzwords, just a practical tool that keeps control in the user’s hands.
One open question is whether Notta will eventually charge for Privacy Mode or keep it as a premium feature. The company’s pricing has historically been tiered by cloud storage and meeting minutes; a local-only mode disrupts that model. For now, the beta is free for all users, and Notta says it is evaluating feedback before deciding on commercialization.
The broader competitive landscape is also worth watching. Otter.ai has experimented with on-device processing in its mobile apps, and Fireflies recently hinted at a desktop client in development. If Notta can deliver a polished, stable 1.0 release quickly, it may capture the segment of users who have been waiting for an offline-capable, bot-free meeting assistant.
For Windows users tired of explaining to colleagues why there is an extra participant named “Notta Bot” in every call, that day just got a lot closer.