Introduction to Read

Read is an AI-powered meeting assistant that seamlessly integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to enhance your meeting experience. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technology, Read provides comprehensive meeting summaries, accurate transcripts, video playback, and more, all designed to optimize meeting efficiency and effectiveness in real-time and asynchronously.

With Read, you can expect polished and professional meeting summaries that capture the key points, decisions, and action items discussed during each meeting. The AI-generated transcripts ensure accurate documentation of the entire conversation, enabling easy reference and retrieval of important information. Additionally, the audio/video playback feature allows you to revisit specific meeting sections effortlessly, saving you time and eliminating the need to sift through lengthy recordings.

The integration of Read with video conferencing empowers you to have a more streamlined and productive meeting workflow. By leveraging AI capabilities, Read transforms your meetings into well-organized and actionable sessions, maximizing the value of your time and fostering collaboration.

We are excited to introduce Read as a valuable addition to your meeting toolkit, and believe it will significantly contribute to enhancing the overall meeting experience for all participants.

Read Intro Video: This 1.5-minute video is an easy introduction to Read AI and some of the capabilities of the platform. Intro to Read AI

For admins

If you're someone who will administer Read for your organization, you're in the right place. The sections below will walk you through the initial process of creating and configuring your Workspace, which is how you will manage all of the different users in your organization. Workspaces allow you to configure settings and permissions for your users, turn various features on or off, and pay for all users' licenses through a single subscription.

For more details on all the features of Workspaces, you can see:

What do Read's paid plans include for companies/groups in Workspaces?

Initial setup & billing

In order to manage Read for your organization, you must first create a Workspace:

Designate an owner of the Workspace.
- This user will be a "super admin" of the Workspace, who handles billing and has maximum permissions to configure and manage the Workspace
- The owner can appoint other users as admins, and can always transfer ownership to someone else later
The owner must already have or create a Read account and log in to Read.
Then navigate to the Compare Plans page to select and purchase a subscription for your Workspace
- Note: you will need to purchase a license for each user you want to add, but they can be reassigned
After the initial purchase, click on the "Add People" link in the left-hand navigation bar. This will create a Workspace, which is how you add users to your account.

For more details, see:

Workspace settings

Only the workspace owner and admins are able to configure their Workspace's settings. Owners get prompted to review several key settings when first creating the Workspace, but all settings can be modified at any point from the Workspace Settings page. For more details on Workspace settings, see: What are all of the settings and permissions available with Workspaces?

If you need to go slowly until administrators and users are comfortable with the feature set and functionality, we recommend a conservative configuration. This means Read has to be manually added to meetings, and no reports are automatically shared. Access is limited.
If you are ready to use Read widely and have a collaborative approach across your team, we recommend a collaborative configuration. This means Read will join meetings and share reports automatically, breaking down silos by sharing knowledge across teams. This works well if you have an open environment, or have used similar tools before.
Or, meet in the middle and opt for a intermediate configuration. Some things will be automated, but you can still start slowly.

Conservative Configuration:

Manage Workspace > Settings > Meeting Auto-Join Preferences:
- Select “Users manually select the meetings Read joinsˮ under Meeting Role. Read will not try to join your meetings automatically, so you will have to manually add it.
- Select "Disabled for workspace" under Auto-Join Unscheduled meetings. This ensures that Read does not attempt to join manually; users will always need to manually add Read to their meetings.
Manage Workspace > Settings > Reports & Sharing:
- Toggle off “Downloads”
- For Internal Participant Access, select “No access”
- For External Participant Access, select “No access”
- Select “Do not allow users to update this preferenceˮ from the drop down menu for Internal as well as External Participant Access
- Leave the link access setting as "No link access" and toggle off "Allow public link access"
- Toggle off “domain discovery” and select “do not allow users to update this preference” from the drop down menu
- Ensure that the Live Meeting Dashboard Link is toggled off and that “Do not allow users to update this preferenceˮ is selected from the drop down menu
Manage Workspace > Teams
- Don't create any teams initially. One of their main features is automatically sharing all reports with team members, or with team managers.
- This should be considered an advanced setting to adjust after use cases for teams are defined (e.g. sales organization, managers)
Manage Workspace > Settings > Integrations:
- Toggle off all integrations besides the four calendar integrations Google, Google Meet, Outlook, Zoom. Note that Readʼs workspace integration settings do not automatically connect any integrations for users; instead this determines which integrations users are allowed to connect.

Intermediate Configuration:

Manage Workspace > Settings > Meeting Auto-Join Preferences:
- For Meeting Role, select "Allow Read to join calendar invites when user is the host"
- For Meeting Types, select "Allow Read to join internal meetings only"
- For Auto-Join Unscheduled Meetings, select "Members can allow"
Manage Workspace > Settings > Reporting:
- For Internal Participant Access, select “Viewer access” and select “set default, allow users to update this preference”
- For External Participant Access, select “Viewer access” or “No access” and select “do not allow users to update this preference” from the drop down menu
- Toggle on “Allow public Link Access” and select “Workspace members”
- Toggle on “domain discovery” and select “do not allow users to update this preference” from the drop down menu
- Enable “Live Meeting Dashboard Linkˮ and select “set default, allow users to update this preference”
Manage Workspace > Teams
- Don't create any teams initially. One of their main features is automatically sharing all reports with team members, or with team managers
- This should be considered an advanced setting to adjust after use cases for teams are defined (e.g. sales organization, managers)
Manage Workspace > Settings > Integrations:
- Enable calendar integrations
- Enable your preferred email provider under Productivity
- Enable the Productivity, Notetaking, Collaboration, Messaging, and CRM integrations that your organization uses. Note that Readʼs workspace integration settings do not automatically connect any integrations for users; instead this determines which integrations users are allowed to connect.

Collaborative Configuration:

Manage Workspace > Settings > Meeting Auto-Join Preferences:
- For Meeting Role, select "Allow Read to join all calendar invites"
- For Meeting Types, select "Allow Read to join all meetings types"
- For Auto-Join Unscheduled Meetings, select "Members can allow"
Manage Workspace > Settings > Reporting:
- For Internal Participant Access, select “Editor access” and select “set default, allow users to update this preference”
- For External Participant Access, select “Viewer access” and select “set default, allow users to update this preference”
- Toggle on “Allow public Link Access” and select “Workspace members.” Alternatively, selecting “Anyone with the link” means users can manually share the report link with anyone they want, and the recipient will not need to create a Read account.
- Toggle on “domain discovery” and select “set default, allow users to update this preference” from the drop down menu.
- Ensure that “set default, allow users to update this preferenceˮ is selected in the drop down under “Live Meeting Dashboard Linkˮ so they can disable it if they wish to do so.
Manage Workspace > Teams
- Don't create any teams initially. One of their main features is automatically sharing all reports with team members, or with team managers
- This should be considered an advanced setting to adjust after use cases for teams are defined (e.g. sales organization, managers)
Manage Workspace > Settings > Integrations:
- Enable calendar integrations
- Enable the Productivity, Notetaking, Collaboration, Messaging, and CRM integrations that your organization uses
- If your company uses a platform that is not yet integrated with Read, let us know! In the meantime, you can enable Webhooks and Zapier so users can create automations under the Workflow section. Note that Readʼs workspace integration settings do not automatically connect any integrations for users; instead this determines which integrations users are allowed to connect.

Privacy & security

Many organizations who use Read care deeply about the privacy and security of their users' data, and we do too. As this can be a fairly complex topic, we've created additional resources to help answer many common questions people have:

If you have any questions that you can't find the answer for, please contact Read Support for assistance.

For all users

This section is for anyone whose Read subscription is being provided to them by their company or organization. In order to access your subscription, you'll need to be invited to your organization's Workspace. In most cases, you will receive an email invite with a link to join your Workspace.

The exception is if your organization has configured workspace settings in order to allow approved users to automatically join, in which case as long as you are approved, you will be automatically added to your Workspace whenever you next log in to Read. If this applies to you, you'll skip to Step 2 below.

Creating an account with Read

Step 1: Respond to the Invite Email

Check your inbox for an email from Read Support (support@e.read.ai): “You have been invited to join a Read Workspace.”
Click the [Join the Workspace] button

Do not forward this email to another account. It is essential that you only create an account using the email address that was invited or you will not be added to the Workspace.

Step 2: Create an account

The email should bring you to the "Create account" page
Click on your company’s preferred sign-on provider
Sign in with your company credentials, making sure you use the same email that received the invite

If you choose to sign up with email instead of SSO, you will need to verify your email address first before you can join the Workspace.

Step 3: Join your company’s Workspace

The first thing you see should be the "Join Workspace" screen
Click the [Accept] button
Once you're added, click [Continue]

If you miss this step, there is a way to fix this after creating an account. See the Troubleshooting guide.

Step 4: Connect your calendar

Next you will be presented with options to connect your calendar
Select calendar(s) that hold your video conferencing meeting invites, and allow the necessary permissions for Read
You can connect one account each for Google and Outlook

If you see a warning here that your calendar was already connected to another Read account, you likely created multiple accounts by accident. This page outlines what to do in this case.

Step 5: Review some key settings

After connecting your calendar(s), you'll be prompted to review some important settings
Confirm whether you want Read to join all of your meetings, only the meetings you host, or only the ones you specifically invite Read to
Confirm who you want email recaps to be sent to after the meeting
You can also click on "Advanced Settings" to view some more settings you may want to review.

You can always change these settings and more later from your Account Settings. Note that some options may be restricted based on your Workspace's settings.

Step 6: Connect additional integrations

Here you can connect other tools that you use to Read. This step is optional, and some or all of these integrations may be disabled by your Workspace. You can also always review available integrations later on once your account is created.

NOTE: If you have meetings on Google Meet or Zoom, even if you personally do not host the meetings, Read highly recommends you connect those integrations. If you do not connect those integrations, Read may not be able to generate complete meeting reports for Google Meet or Zoom meetings.

Step 7: Wrap up

Here you can download the Read desktop app and browser extension. Both are useful tools that we recommend for to all users.

Customize account settings

General Settings

On the bottom left of your screen, you will see your name and email. Select it and another menu will appear pointing you to “Account Settings”.

If any settings are grayed out or cannot be changed, this would be due to your Workspace’s configuration (contact a Workspace admin if you would like to change). We recommend browsing through all of the settings to familiarize yourself with Read’s options and features.

Configure Read for upcoming meetings

You can also customize in advance which meetings you want Read to join and how you want to share those meetings by going to “Calendar” and toggling “Add Read?” on or off. These defaults are based on your Account Settings but can be modified for specific meetings at any time:

Flexible?: Read will automatically reschedule for the best time as your calendar changes, taking your focus time into account as well.
Add Read?: This option invites or disinvites your own Read Assistant to the meeting. Other Read users in the meetings may invite their own Read Assistant as well.

Frequently asked questions

Below are some commonly asked questions about using Read AI. If you can’t find the answer to your question, reach out to Read Support (average response time less than 1 business day).

How do I contact Support?

You can submit a support ticket by using this form: https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/requests/new

Read’s help center has a lot of useful information that can help people self-serve answers quickly. You can also use the Ask Read tool to find answers about how to use Read.

What is a Workspace and why do I have an invite?

Workspaces are used to manage the Read AI service across an organization. This includes establishing recommended settings across the organization. You’ll see Workspace mentioned in two ways:

You don't have an account yet, but received an email invite to join a Workspace. Please accept the invite by clicking through the email and following the onboarding steps.
You’ve already created an account and received an invite to join the Workspace. When you click through that email, you’ll see a request to join the Workspace and migrate your past meetings, please accept both.

What to expect in my first meeting?

When Read joins, it’s similar to when a participant joins the meeting:

Your meeting host or someone else in the call may need to allow Read to join (depends on the video conferencing platform settings)
On Zoom specifically, Read will request recording permission from the host and won't start recording unless approved.
Depending on how Read joins and the meeting platform settings, Read may send a message into the meeting chat notifying participants that it is joining the meeting to take notes, and highlighting chat controls.
After the meeting is over, you’ll receive a meeting recap email (if enabled), and you’ll be able to review the meeting report which includes a summary, highlights, transcripts, and audio/video playback (Enterprise or Enterprise+ plans only) at https://app.read.ai/analytics/reports

How should I communicate with my meeting attendees when Read is on?

Start by explaining the what: We have rolled out Read AI, an AI-powered meeting assistant that seamlessly integrates with our meetings.

And the why: The goal of Read is to enhance and improve the current meeting experience at our organization. This AI technology will provide comprehensive meeting summaries, accurate transcripts, playback functionality, and highlights, all designed to optimize meeting efficiency and effectiveness. Our hope is that by using this tool, we can save time and effort in taking notes and have better-documented insights from our conversations.

Security and Privacy: Rest assured Read is a secure tool that complies with our privacy policies. If, however, you're not comfortable with this setup, let us know and we'll either disable Read if everyone agrees or provide you with a separate copy of the meeting notes if you choose to leave the meeting.

What if I use multiple calendars?

If your calendar account includes multiple different calendars, make sure to choose which ones to opt-in for Read to join.

You may have a few calendars connected to your Google or Microsoft Calendar. From your Integrations page, select the calendars where you want Read to join your meetings and unselect those you don’t want Read to consider (e.g. company trainings).