Meetings and recording

A meeting is the series. A session is one recording of that meeting. This page explains how to create meetings, capture audio, and follow a session until its draft is ready.

Meetings and quick meetings

A meeting is a recurring or named series. On the Meetings page, select New Meeting. The form has the fields Name, Description, Recurrence, Duration (min), and Location. Each recording you make is a session of that meeting.

A quick meeting holds recordings that do not belong to a series. On the dashboard, select Record a Meeting without choosing a meeting. If the Record under list shows, keep Quick Meeting. ācta files the recording under the quick meeting of the workspace. The quick meeting carries a Quick badge on the Meetings page. You cannot edit a quick meeting.

Participants and contacts

A meeting has Default Participants. Each participant has a Name, an Email, and a Role. The roles are Attendee, Presenter, and Organizer. The Contacts page stores people and groups that you can reuse.

Record a meeting

1. Open the meeting.
2. Select Start Recording.
3. Select Allow Microphone.
4. Accept the browser prompt.
5. Optional: select Include System Audio to capture audio from other apps, such as a video call.
6. When the meeting ends, select the red stop button.
7. In the End Recording? window, select End Recording.

Upload a recording

You can upload audio of a meeting that you already recorded. It becomes minutes in the same way as a live recording. If you cannot drop a file, select browse in the window to choose one.

1. Open the meeting.
2. Select Upload Recording.
3. Drop an audio file on the window.
4. Select Upload.

ācta accepts these file types: MP3, M4A, MP4, WAV, WebM, OGG, Opus, and FLAC. A video file is accepted if it has an audio track. By default, a file can be up to 500 MB and 8 hours long.

ācta checks the file after the upload. If ācta refuses a file, the session shows File Not Accepted with the reason. The file uses no hours, and ācta deletes it. Select Upload Another Recording to start again. A valid file uses hours and goes through the same processing as a live recording.

Recording length

A recording can last up to 8 hours. ācta warns you 10 minutes before the limit, at 7 hours 50 minutes by default. At the limit, ācta stops the recording. Everything recorded is saved and processed as usual.

Go off the record

Select Off the Record during a recording to mark a segment for redaction. A banner stays on screen while the segment is marked and says that the segment will be redacted. Select the button again to resume the normal recording.

How ācta protects your recording

Your recording is the source of every record that ācta makes. ācta is built so that you do not lose one. The recorder protects your audio in these ways.

• ācta saves audio while you record. The recorder sends the audio to ācta in 30-second parts and does not wait for the end of the meeting.
• If a part does not upload, the recorder tries again automatically.
• If the tab closes or the browser crashes, ācta keeps the audio that it already saved. You can process it on your next visit.
• If your hours run out, ācta still records and stores the audio. Processing waits until hours are available.
• If a recording reaches the length limit, ācta stops it and saves everything recorded.

If a recording is interrupted

If the tab closes or the browser crashes, the next visit to the recording page shows Previous Recording Interrupted. Select Process Saved Audio to process the audio that ācta saved. Select Dismiss to ignore it. This prompt appears only in the same browser on the same device.

Processing states

Each session shows a status badge while ācta works on it.

• Pending: the session waits for processing.
• Transcribing: ācta turns the audio into a transcript.
• Generating: ācta writes the summary, the minutes, and the records.
• Complete: the draft is ready for your review.
• Failed: processing stopped, and the session shows the reason.
• Processing held: your hours ran out, and ācta stores the audio until more hours are available.

On a held session, the Summary and Minutes tabs say that they are held until more hours are available.