Using Tactiq on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, in a Browser or on a Mac

Extension or Mac app

Where you join the meeting decides which Tactiq you need:

• In Chrome or Edge, including Zoom and Teams opened in the browser, Google Meet, and the Teams progressive web app: the Tactiq extension. Its installation guide asks for Chrome or Edge on a computer, and the Teams guide adds the Teams web app.
• In the Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Slack desktop apps on a Mac: the Tactiq Mac app. The Mac app guide says it covers those three desktop apps only. The extension can't see them.

Neither one adds a participant to the call. Tactiq's Zoom guide says the extension transcribes from your browser, and the Mac app guide says the app captures audio through macOS, so nothing shows up in the participant list.

Install the extension

1. Following Tactiq's extension installation guide, open Tactiq in the Chrome Web Store, select Add to Chrome, then Add extension. In Edge, open Tactiq in Edge Add-ons, select Get, then Add extension.
2. On the setup page that opens, select the meeting platforms you use and select Continue. If Tactiq asks for more access, select Enable Tactiq (in Edge, Grant Access first).
3. Pin Tactiq to the toolbar from the Extensions icon.
4. Decide how people in your meetings will know. In the Tactiq dashboard, click your profile icon, select Settings and, under Privacy settings, turn on Notify others you're transcribing the meeting. Tactiq then posts a one-time message in the meeting chat at the start of each meeting, as its notification setting describes. Check that transcribing is allowed in the meeting too; the message tells people, it doesn't ask them.
5. Join a short test meeting in your browser, turn on the meeting's captions, and check that the Tactiq widget appears and starts showing text. The installation guide says Tactiq works from the platform's captions; Google Meet is the exception, covered below.

If the widget never appears, open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions, make sure Tactiq is turned on, and restart the browser.

The Mac app for desktop calls

The Mac app guide lists Apple silicon or Intel Macs and a Tactiq account.

1. In your Tactiq dashboard, go to Integrations and download the Mac app.
2. Open the downloaded .dmg file and drag Tactiq into your Applications folder. Open it, and select Open if macOS asks about an app downloaded from the internet.
3. Sign in, allow Microphone and Screen & System Audio access, and run the test call the app offers.
4. Leave Tactiq running and join your Zoom or Teams call in its desktop app. A Transcription has started notification confirms it's working. On a paid plan with Always ask about transcribing turned on, Tactiq asks first.
5. During the call, the Tactiq menu in the menu bar shows what it's transcribing and has Pause Transcribing and Open Tactiq.

When the call ends, Tactiq processes the transcript and sends a second notification when it's ready in your dashboard. The Zoom desktop version of the guide adds that it names the meeting after your calendar event; without one, look for "Meeting Transcription" and a timestamp.

Zoom in a browser needs captions on

Tactiq's Zoom guide says the extension needs Zoom's Automated captions setting, which is off by default on many accounts.

1. If you host, sign in to the Zoom web portal, open Settings, then the Meeting tab, find In Meeting (Advanced), turn on Automated captions and save.
2. On the Zoom join screen, choose Join from your browser in Chrome or Edge.
3. In the meeting, select Show captions in the Zoom toolbar. If someone else hosts and you don't see Show captions, select Request Captions or message the host.
4. Open the Tactiq widget, set the language being spoken, and check that text appears.

Zoom's own caption settings are covered in Zoom translated captions and plans.

Google Meet

Open Meet in the browser where Tactiq is installed and join. The Google Meet guide says the widget appears on the right and starts transcribing when people speak; you don't need to turn on Meet's captions. Stay in the call: transcription stops when you leave.

Check the language before anyone says much. In the small widget, select the language shown; in the expanded widget, select Change on the blue banner. Tactiq keeps that language for your next meetings, and it can't re-transcribe a finished live transcript in another one.

Microsoft Teams

In a browser, open the meeting link in Chrome or Edge and choose Continue on this browser. Tactiq's Teams guide covers two common problems:

• The address contains /light-meetings/ and nothing is transcribed. Turn on Teams captions from More actions → Language and speech → Show live captions, then open Caption settings → Language settings and set Meeting spoken language to the language people are speaking. If you can't change it, ask the organizer.
• The transcript says Speaker 1 instead of names. In Teams, each person opens Settings and turns on Accessibility → Captions and transcripts → Automatically identify me in live captions and live transcripts.

If you'd rather keep the Teams transcript itself, saving Teams captions explains what Teams stores.

When a browser transcript goes missing

For a meeting you transcribed with the extension, first sign in to the same Tactiq account you used in the meeting. Then, as the Zoom guide describes, open Account Settings → Data stored in your browser → Manage Unsaved Transcripts and save what's there. Unsaved transcripts are stored in the browser where the meeting happened, so check from that browser on that computer. If nothing is there, the meeting wasn't transcribed.

Tactiq can't retrieve it afterwards. To keep it from happening again, its troubleshooting page suggests updating the extension, then running a two- to five-minute test meeting and speaking in the language selected in the widget.

10 free meeting credits a month

The Free plan gets 10 meeting credits a month, according to Tactiq's meeting credits page. Each captured meeting uses one, except meetings shorter than five minutes. Credits reset monthly and don't roll over.

When you run out of meeting credits, Tactiq may keep capturing, but new transcripts are preview-only: you can't read them in full, search them or run AI on them. The credit counter in the lower-left corner of the dashboard shows how many you've used.

To get a credit back for a future meeting, archive a transcript you no longer need in My Meetings. Archived transcripts are automatically deleted after 30 days unless you restore them or delete them sooner, so export anything you want to keep first. No credit unlocks a transcript that's already preview-only; upgrading does.

To save credits on the Free plan, Tactiq's pause guide says to click the pause button in the widget once transcription starts. Anything said while it's paused isn't recoverable. Having Tactiq ask before each meeting is a paid-plan setting.

The plans page lists 5 AI credits a month on Free and Pro at $8 per user a month billed yearly, or $12 monthly, with unlimited transcripts.

Recordings, in-person meetings and YouTube

For a meeting in a room, record it with a voice recorder or phone app and upload the file with Upload Transcript or Recording in the dashboard. Tactiq takes MP4, M4A, MP3 and MOV up to 2 GB and labels speakers as Speaker 1, Speaker 2. Each upload uses a meeting credit on Free, AI tools need more than 2 minutes of transcript, and large files can take up to 2 hours.

Tactiq doesn't transcribe YouTube inside the app. Its free YouTube transcript generator takes a video link and returns a .txt file, English only and not for Shorts, which you can then upload.

Lectures, podcasts and other audio

For a lecture video or a podcast, look for captions or a transcript in the player first.

If the player has none, macOS has Live Captions for sound playing on your Mac. Apple's Live Captions guide for Mac puts it in System Settings → Accessibility → Live Captions and lists it for Apple silicon Macs only, with some languages and regions left out. Vocena also captions the Mac's system audio and microphone, on macOS 15.5 or later, free and without a time limit.

If you want meeting notes without a browser extension, Fireflies without a bot covers the Fireflies desktop app.