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Quick summary:
Purpose: Learn how to record Zoom meetings effectively, from simple in-app methods to advanced, automated solutions for businesses.
Key Focus: Compares Zoom’s built-in recording feature with scalable options like the Nylas Notetaker API for capturing meeting data.
What You’ll Learn:
- Step-by-step guide to using Zoom’s native recording for quick, manual captures.
- Limitations of Zoom’s recording for business use (e.g., manual process, storage issues, lack of customization).
- Five alternative methods, including external tools, desktop apps, Zoom APIs, and live streaming.
- How to integrate the Nylas Notetaker API for automated, cross-platform recording with AI transcription and compliance.
Who It’s For: Individual users needing simple note-taking or developers/builders creating scalable meeting solutions for CRMs, project tools, or compliance needs.
Takeaway: Discover when to use Zoom’s basic recorder versus advanced tools like Nylas to streamline workflows and integrate with business systems.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re tired of walking out of important meetings, struggling to remember who said what and where you need to go from here. Your first instinct might be to hit that record button in Zoom and figure it out later.
That works fine if you’re recording the occasional team check-in or client presentation. But if you’re managing multiple business-critical meetings weekly, manually recording every single meeting becomes harder to keep track of.
We’ll cover six approaches to capturing Zoom meeting data: From the Zoom record button to APIs that make it easier to build any meeting feature.
Let’s start with what you probably came here for, then show you what’s possible when you think beyond the record button.
The quick answer: Recording a Zoom meeting in-app
For immediate recording needs, Zoom’s built-in functionality gets the job done. Here’s the 30-second walkthrough:
- Start or join your meeting as the host or co-host
- Click the “Record” button in the meeting toolbar
- Choose your storage: Cloud recording (paid plans) or local device
- Access your recording post-meeting through Zoom’s web portal or your device
Done. Your meeting is recorded.
The limitations of recording meetings in Zoom
Recording a Zoom meeting within the platform can get overwhelming fast if you’re trying to build more complex cross-functional processes in the workplace. The bottleneck here is scale, standardization, and connectivity.
- Manual overhead: You have to remember to hit record for every meeting, then spend hours downloading files and manually updating your CRM or project tools. If you’re running ten meetings per week, that simple recording task becomes a major time sink.
- Zoom-only data: Your meeting recordings stay locked in Zoom’s platform. Even with AI Companion’s new integrations, you can’t control how conversation data flows into your business systems or customize what insights get extracted.
- No customization: You’re stuck with Zoom’s generic recording experience. You can’t customize consent workflows for your users, add your company branding to meeting bots, or build recording controls directly into your CRM dashboard where your team actually works.
- Storage bottlenecks: Cloud recordings quickly fill up your Zoom storage quota, especially when you’re recording multiple meetings per week. Local recordings eat up device storage and create backup headaches. External tools let you store recordings in your preferred infrastructure without hitting Zoom’s limits.
- Limited API access: Zoom’s recording API only provides basic file downloads without real-time transcription or speaker identification. The AI Companion integrations are pre-built workflows that you can’t modify. You can’t access raw meeting data or build custom AI processing into your own applications.
Beyond the record button: 5 ways to capture Zoom meetings
When Zoom’s built-in recording isn’t enough, here are your options for capturing meeting data automatically.
| Approach | How it Works | Best For | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| External meeting recording tools | Apps like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Grain join your meetings as AI assistants, automatically record conversations, and generate transcripts with speaker identification. | Individual users and departments or teams who want automatic meeting notes without technical setup. | It can be challenging to integrate with existing business systems. Standalone tools offer limited APIs, making it difficult to sync data with complete flexibility to tools that don’t have bespoke integrations. |
| Desktop recording applications | Software like Loom, Camtasia capture meetings directly through a desktop recorder or application. AI recorders like ChatGPT Record and Notion AI Meeting Notes can be used to capture meeting audio and not video. | Personal note-taking or for sharing resources within groups that have provided consent to being recorded. | Major compliance risks for business use. Desktop recording can capture meetings without other participants’ knowledge, violating consent laws in many jurisdictions. |
| Zoom’s Cloud Recording API | REST API that lets you download completed meeting recordings programmatically. Requires paid Zoom plans and host-initiated recording. | Organizations with existing Zoom Business/Enterprise accounts who want to archive recordings in their own systems. | Only works with paid Zoom subscriptions, limiting your addressable market to Zoom Pro/Business/Enterprise customers. Hosts must manually start recording for each meeting. Transcripts don’t come with speaker labels and time stamps. |
| Zoom’s RTMP Live Streaming | Real-time streaming protocol that broadcasts meeting audio/video to external endpoints with 10-30 second latency. | Live event broadcasting to social platforms or real-time meeting analysis. | Requires Pro/Business/ Enterprise accounts. Manual host setup for each meeting. Separate transcription services required. |
| Build a meeting bot with the Zoom Meeting SDK Integration | Build custom meeting bots using Zoom’s development kit. Your bot joins as a meeting participant and captures data directly. | Enterprise teams with dedicated developers who need complete control over recording logic and data processing. | Zoom app review process takes 4+ weeks. Requires building and maintaining separate SDKs for multiple platforms. Zoom enforces mandatory SDK version updates that require ongoing engineering resources to maintain compatibility. |
| Use Nylas Notetaker | Single API endpoint that deploys meeting bots across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Send a meeting URL, get back recordings, transcripts, and structured data through webhooks. | Product builders that want the benefits of automated meeting recording without the development and maintenance overhead. | Meeting participants will see meeting bots join, which may not work for scenarios requiring invisible recording. Nylas is best suited to meet regulatory requirements for organizations needing clear documentation of recording consent. |
How to record a Zoom meeting with Nylas Notetaker AI meeting bot
Let’s quickly walk through how to use Nylas in your business application or internal tools to automatically deploy a bot to Zoom meetings or sync with calendar events.
Before you start, make sure you have:
- A Nylas developer account with API access
- Your Nylas API key from the dashboard
- A Grant ID for the user whose meetings you want to record
- Zoom meeting links (either from calendar events or manual input)
Create a Nylas account for free to record up to 5 hours of meetings free! Start your 14-day free trial of the Nylas Notetaker to start building in our sandbox.
Step 1
Set up your development environment with the necessary credentials.
Development environment setup
#Install the Nylas SDK
npm install nylas dotenv
# Create .env file echo "NYLAS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here" > .env echo "NYLAS_GRANT_ID=your_grant_id_here" >> .env
# javascript
import Nylas from 'nylas';
import 'dotenv/config';
// Initialize the Nylas client
const nylas = new Nylas({
apiKey: process.env.NYLAS_API_KEY,
});
const grantId = process.env.NYLAS_GRANT_ID;
Step 2
If you don’t already have a Grant ID, you’ll need to authenticate a user and obtain one through Nylas’s OAuth flow.
Obtain Grant ID
"41009df5-bf11-4c97-aa18-b285b5f2e386"; // Example Grant ID
Step 3
Deploy a meeting bot to join and record a specific Zoom meeting.
Deploy a meeting bot
// Create a notetaker for a specific Zoom meeting
async function createMeetingRecorder(meetingLink, meetingTitle) {
try {
const notetaker = await nylas.notetakers.create({
identifier: grantId,
requestBody: {
meetingLink,, // e.g., "https://zoom.us/j/123456789"
name: `Meeting Recorder - ${meetingTitle}`,
meetingSettings: {
audioRecording: true, // Record audio
videoRecording: false, // Audio-only for efficiency
transcription: true // Generate transcripts
}
}
});
console.log(`Notetaker created with ID: ${notetaker.data.id}`);
return notetaker.data.id;
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error creating notetaker:', error);
}
}
// Example usage
const meetingId = await createMeetingRecorder(
"https://zoom.us/j/123456789",
"Sales Team Weekly Sync"
);
or
Use the Nylas Calendar Sync to automatically monitor your calendar and deploys Notetakers based on rules you configure.
Deploy a meeting bot with Calenday sync
// Set up automatic Notetaker deployment for future calendar meetings
async function setupCalendarSync() {
try {
const calendarSync = await nylas.calendars.
create
({
identifier: grantId,
calendarId: "primary",
requestBody: {
// Monitor the primary calendar
// Configuration for all auto-deployed Notetakers
notetaker: {
name: "Meeting Recorder",
meeting_settings: {
audioRecording: true, // Record audio
videoRecording: false, // Audio-only to save storage
transcription: true // Generate transcripts
}
}
}
});
console.log('Calendar Sync configured:', calendarSync.data);
return calendarSync.data.id;
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error setting up Calendar Sync:', error);
}
}
Step 4
You can send a direct API request to download processed files or set up webhook handling to process transcripts and recordings when they’re complete.
Download the media files
// Method 1: Webhook notifications (recommended for real-time processing)
app.post('/webhooks/notetaker', async (req, res) => {
const webhookData = req;
// Check for media availability notification
if (webhookData.type === 'notetaker.media' &&
webhookData.data.object.state === 'available') {
const { data } = webhookData;
const notetakerId = data.object.id;
const mediaUrls = data.object.media;
console.log('Recording URL:', mediaUrls.recording);
console.log('Transcript URL:', mediaUrls.transcript);
// Download and process the files
await processRecordingAndTranscript(mediaUrls.recording, mediaUrls.transcript);
}
res.status(200).send('Webhook received');
});
async function processRecordingAndTranscript(recordingUrl, transcriptUrl) {
try {
// Your custom processing logic here
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error processing meeting data:', error);
}
}
Now that you have an easy way to get accurate, high-quality meeting data, you can use AI to extract meeting intelligence, build more complex workflow automations, or develop custom models for internal and external apps.
You can check out a few examples of apps that you can add AI meeting notetakers to using the Nylas API, including:
- CRM platforms: Automatically extract deal progression insights, customer concerns, and next steps from sales calls to update Salesforce or HubSpot records without manual data entry
- Applicant tracking systems: Process candidate interviews to score technical skills, assess cultural fit, and generate structured feedback that flows directly into your ATS workflows
- Project management tools: Turn meeting conversations into actionable tasks and assignments that automatically sync with Asana, Jira, or Monday.com based on who was assigned what
- Telehealth platforms: Generate clinical documentation from patient consultations while maintaining HIPAA compliance and creating searchable medical records
- Team collaboration apps: Transform meeting discussions into organized notes, action items, and follow-up reminders that integrate with your existing productivity workflows
How are you recording your next Zoom meeting?
If you’re an individual user looking for personal note-taking or a business with simple meeting capture needs, then you can definitely get by with Zoom’s built-in recorder or external AI notetakers and desktop recorders.
But if you’re looking to integrate meeting recording data to a SaaS application, internal app, AI models and workflows, then you have two options:
- Custom builds with Zoom APIs: You can use Zoom’s Cloud Recording API, RTMP streaming, or Meeting SDK if you’re doubling down on only the Zoom user experience and have the internal resources to dedicate to integration development, calendar automation, and ongoing maintenance resources.
- Ship fast with Nylas: Choose Nylas Notetaker when you want to add meeting recording, transcription, and calendar integration to your product without building infrastructure. You get cross-platform coverage (Zoom + Google Meet + Teams) with enterprise compliance built-in.
Ready to get started?
Create a Nylas account for free to record up to 5 hours of meetings free!
