Shadow is a Mac-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes meetings in the background without joining as a bot. It captures both spoken dialogue and screen content simultaneously, never appearing as a visible participant. Local-first processing keeps your data private.



If you've ever walked out of a remote meeting thinking "I should write that down" — and then forgot — you're not alone. Remote work means more meetings, more information exchanged, and more details that slip through the cracks. You might remember the big decisions, but what about the nuanced feedback on your design? The action item your manager mentioned in passing? The client requirement that seemed obvious in the moment but became unclear a week later?
Shadow is a Mac-native AI meeting assistant designed to capture everything — not just what's said, but what's shown on your screen. It runs completely in the background, without joining your meetings as a visible bot. Every conversation gets transcribed, every demo gets captured, and you get structured notes you can actually use afterward.
What makes Shadow different from other meeting assistants? Three things: no bots in your meetings, local-first data processing, and dual capture of both "said" and "shown" content. Instead of a robot appearing in your Zoom call and notifying everyone "this meeting is being recorded," Shadow works silently on your Mac. It captures audio through your device and grabs screenshots of your screen — all without altering the meeting dynamic or alerting other participants.
Thousands of professionals already trust Shadow. Teams at Intercom, Mercury, Zapier, Dropbox, Salesforce, ServiceNow, LinkedIn, Uber, and other leading companies use it daily to preserve meeting context, follow up accurately, and keep decisions searchable over time.
Here's what Shadow can do for you — not as a feature list, but as capabilities that solve real problems in your workday.
You start a meeting and forget to press record. We've all been there. Shadow eliminates that friction by automatically capturing and transcribing every meeting once you grant permission. There's no manual start button needed — the app detects when you're in a meeting and handles the rest. You walk away with a full transcript, speaker-annotated, ready for review.
Traditional meeting assistants join your call as a visible participant. Everyone gets a notification. The meeting dynamic shifts. Clients or colleagues might feel uncomfortable knowing they're being recorded by a third-party bot.
Shadow takes a fundamentally different approach. It runs as a local Mac process and never joins the meeting through any API. Other participants have no idea Shadow is there. This matters for client calls, sensitive HR discussions, and any situation where you want recording without the overhead of explaining a bot presence.
If even pressing "start" feels like too much, enable Autopilot mode. Shadow automatically detects when a meeting begins, starts recording, and structures the key takeaways as the conversation unfolds. You can focus entirely on the discussion — Shadow handles the documentation.
Words only tell part of the story. When someone shares their screen to walk through a design, a spreadsheet, or a product demo, Shadow captures what's being shown. These screenshots sync with the transcript timestamps, so you can click on any moment in the conversation and see exactly what was on screen at that time.
This is particularly valuable for design reviews, technical walkthroughs, and any meeting where visual context matters. No more trying to remember "what was that screenshot from minute 12?"
In group meetings, knowing who said what makes transcripts infinitely more useful. Shadow uses voice analysis to identify and label different speakers in real time. You see "Sarah mentioned the deadline" instead of "someone mentioned the deadline" — which matters when you're looking back to assign follow-ups or attribute ideas.
You've finished a long meeting and need to find something specific — "what did we decide about the launch date?" or "did John mention any concerns about the budget?" Instead of scrolling through the entire transcript, just ask Shadow. It's an AI-powered conversational interface that answers questions based on your meeting content. You can use it during the meeting or days afterward.
Every team has their own workflow. With Shadow's Custom Skills, you can create AI-powered automation that runs after each meeting. Want meeting notes automatically exported to a specific Slack channel? Need summaries sent to your project management tool? Custom Skills lets you trigger webhooks and integrations (including Zapier) to pipe your meeting data exactly where you need it.
Every meeting Shadow records becomes searchable. Missed a decision from last month's all-hands? Need to find when a client mentioned a specific requirement? The search function scans your entire meeting history — transcripts, notes, and screenshots — so you can find any detail in seconds.
Shadow works well for anyone who attends meetings regularly, but certain use cases shine. Here's how different teams put it to work.
The problem: Design feedback is visual and nuanced. Someone says "make this pop more" and points at a button, but what does that mean a month later when you're implementing the change?
The solution: Shadow captures the screen as designs are being discussed, synced with the audio. You can revisit exactly what was on screen during each comment. Future you will thank present you.
Enable Autopilot mode before design reviews so you never miss capturing feedback while actively discussing changes with your team.
The problem: Sales calls contain critical requirements, pricing discussions, and next steps that somehow become fuzzy by the time you write the follow-up email.
The solution: Shadow generates meeting summaries with action items and can draft your follow-up email. You leave the call with everything you need to move the deal forward — no scrambling to remember details.
Use Custom Skills to automatically send meeting summaries to your CRM or Slack channel the moment the call ends.
The problem: You can't attend every meeting when your team spans multiple time zones. FOMO (fear of missing out) becomes real when important discussions happen while you're offline.
The solution: Every meeting is recorded and transcribed. Your colleagues in Tokyo, London, and New York can all catch up on meetings they couldn't attend — in their own time, at their own pace, without blocking others' calendars for synchronous updates.
Create a "meeting digest" Custom Skill that pulls key decisions and action items into a concise summary for async team sharing.
The problem: "I thought we decided to go with Option B?" "No, we said we'd test Option B first but keep Option A as backup." These conversations happen. The outcome often gets lost.
The solution: Search across all your meetings to find exactly what was decided, when, and by whom. Every decision becomes traceable.
Use the search function with specific phrases like "decision:" or "agreed:" to quickly surface formal decisions from past meetings.
The problem: "Sarah said she'd send the spec by Friday." Friday comes. No spec. Was it actually said? Did you misremember?
The solution: Shadow automatically extracts action items and assigns them to the right people. You see exactly what was promised, by whom, and when. Accountability becomes effortless.
After each meeting, review the extracted action items in the Shadow interface and verify ownership before moving on to your next task.
The problem: Traditional meeting bots notify participants that recording is happening. For confidential discussions — M&A talks, HR matters, competitive strategy — that notification itself is a data leak.
The solution: Shadow runs silently. No participants are notified. The recording happens through your device only. Sensitive conversations get captured without changing the room dynamics.
Review Shadow's official safety guidelines before using in highly confidential settings to ensure proper consent and compliance with your organization's policies.
Shadow offers three tiers designed for different usage levels. Here's a clear breakdown to help you decide.
| Plan | Price | What's Included | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Unlimited recording and transcription; AI features (Skills & Chat) for first 25 meetings; unlimited smart screenshots | Individual users who want basic meeting capture without ongoing costs |
| Plus | $8/month (billed annually at $96/year) | Everything in Free, plus unlimited AI meeting summaries, unlimited AI Skills, unlimited AI Chat | Power users and professionals who attend many meetings and rely heavily on AI features |
| Custom | Contact sales | Advanced controls, enterprise security, deployment at scale | Organizations needing SSO, admin controls, and volume licensing |
Which should you choose?
Start with the Free plan — it's genuinely free forever, not a trial. You'll get unlimited recording and smart screenshots, which alone covers most people's basic needs. If you find yourself wanting AI summaries after every meeting, generating automated follow-ups, or building custom workflows, the Plus plan pays for itself in time saved.
For teams, the Custom plan unlocks the administrative features and security controls that larger organizations require.
Shadow is a bot-free AI meeting assistant that runs on your Mac. It automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings — capturing both what's said and what's shown on your screen. It never appears as a meeting participant, and all processing happens locally on your device by default.
Shadow supports approximately 100 languages. Transcription quality is highest for English, but it works well across most major languages. If you conduct meetings primarily in English, you'll get the best results.
The key difference is that those tools join your meeting as visible bots — participants get notified, and the meeting dynamics shift. Shadow runs completely invisibly; it never joins through any meeting API and other participants have no idea it's there. Additionally, Shadow is the only major meeting assistant that captures both screen content (smart screenshots) and audio simultaneously.
Yes. Transcriptions happen on your Mac — the audio doesn't leave your device unless you explicitly enable cloud AI features. Data is stored locally by default. You can even disable AI features entirely if you want a fully local workflow.
No. Shadow explicitly states that it never uses meeting content to train AI models. Your conversations stay your conversations.
Shadow recommends obtaining consent from all participants before recording. The app includes guidance on responsible usage. For client meetings or sensitive discussions, it's best to inform attendees that the meeting is being recorded.
Not currently. All data stays local on the Mac where Shadow is installed. Cross-device sync is a requested feature and appears on Shadow's product roadmap.
Shadow is a Mac-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes meetings in the background without joining as a bot. It captures both spoken dialogue and screen content simultaneously, never appearing as a visible participant. Local-first processing keeps your data private.
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