An AI meeting assistant without a bot: how Align for Calls works

A meeting bot joins a call as an additional participant. Align for Calls takes a different route: the person using the extension presses Start in their own browser, and the extension follows captions visible in the meeting client. Other participants do not need to install it.

Bot-free describes how the information is captured. It does not mean no meeting data is processed. The extension sends caption text to Align for notes, questions, and the wrap-up. Tell participants what is happening and follow your team's rules for using meeting assistants. By default, Start posts a notice in the call chat.

The source is the meeting client's captions, so missing captions mean missing source text. Caption errors can also affect names, numbers, and the notes built from them. Check important wording against the conversation and correct the wrap-up before sharing it.

1. Install Align from the store link on the Align for Calls page, then connect your Align account in the extension.
2. Join Google Meet, Teams on the web, or the Zoom web client in Chrome, Brave, or Microsoft Edge.
3. Open the Align controls, pick the meeting type, and press Start. Capture starts when you choose it.
4. Check that captions are running. Start attempts to enable them where supported; turn them on yourself if the meeting client requires it.
5. Read the live notes and ask questions as you talk. Before sharing the wrap-up, review the decision, owners, and open questions.

For a first trial, use a call whose participants understand the setup. That lets you check the caption source, the notice, and the saved result together. A successful setup test should include a concrete decision, an unresolved question, and an action with an owner so you can inspect all three outputs.

The extension drafts live key points, decisions, actions, and open questions. Ask Align can help you check what has been decided so far. Nudges can surface a missing owner or vague agreement while there is still time to clarify it.

An illustrative planning call might end with 'let's try the new workflow.' Before leaving, turn that into a real boundary: who is trying it, for how long, what they will check, and when the team reviews the result. If those details were never agreed, keep them open in the recap instead of letting the AI draft become an accidental commitment.

The extension's wrap-up is a draft to confirm or edit. It supports the call; it is not the same as the whole team watching the decisions land on a shared board in an Align room. Use the workflow that matches the level of review you need.

Sometimes a useful call ends with a question still open. Preserve that outcome. Name the missing evidence and the person who will obtain it. An unfinished discussion can move into an Align room, where the documents and the open question stay on the board until the team settles it.

Review the security and privacy pages before using the workflow with sensitive material. The important practical checks are what source text is sent, who can access the saved result, and whether you should keep or discard the capture. The extension offers discard for removing its capture and transcript from Align.