The desktop app is an ideal way to use Read AI on your Windows or Mac computer instead of a web browser.
- You can access your meeting reports, Ask Read, and more.
- You can you control which meetings to send your bot to, and
- You can directly record audio from your computer, allowing you to capture any conversation!
- Plus, get notifications that help you remember to start recording and join your meetings on time.
This page will walk through how to get the Read AI desktop app and how it works.
How to Get the Desktop App
Anyone with a Mac or Windows computer can use the desktop app, with some exceptions:
- Windows: Only 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and 11 are currently supported
- Mac: Only macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later is currently supported
Download and Install
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Visit Our Website:
Go to read.ai/desktop to access the latest version of the desktop app. -
Choose Your Platform:
Select either the Windows or MacOS version, depending on your device.
For Mac, you also have to know whether you have an Apple Silicon or Intel computer. -
Download the Installer:
Click the appropriate download button and save the installer file to your computer. -
Install the App:
- On Mac, open the downloaded .dmg file and drag the Read AI app into your Applications folder.
- On Windows, run the .exe installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
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Sign In:
Launch the app and sign in with your Read AI account credentials. If you don’t have an account, you can create one during the setup process.
The first time you sign in, we'll walk you through some initial configuration and show you around the different parts of the app.
How the Desktop App Works
With the desktop app you can control when the Read bot will join your calls, and record audio directly from your computer. Both of these options will produce the meeting reports you know with transcription, summaries, and analytics.
Seamless Meeting Capture with Bot
- The desktop app automatically detects and joins your scheduled meetings on supported video conferencing platforms.
- Just turn on the "Add Read" setting from your Home or Calendar page (if not already enabled by default) and your Read AI bot will join the call when it starts.
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Requires a connected calendar.
Seamless Meeting Capture from your computer
- For any platforms that don't support Read AI bot join, you can click the "Record" button to record audio directly from your computer.
- Great for capturing Slack huddles, Teams calls, Webex meetings, and dialer software calls.
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Requires both microphone and system audio permission.
- You can also use the "Record" feature on apps that do support bot join if you find the bot-less experience more convenient. However, keep these caveats in mind:
- Desktop recordings only capture audio, while the bot can capture video, too.
- Desktop reports don't currently include coaching or participant-level deep dive metrics.
- Bots are immediately visible to call participants, and can be easily removed by others, whereas audio capture is not.
- With auto-join, you never have to remember to start the recording the way you do with "Record".
Whether recording locally or with a bot, you should always get consent from everyone you record.
- The app will remind you about this before each time you start a recording, unless you disable it.
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It also provides a disclosure message you can copy/paste to share with others, which includes a link that anyone can use to opt out and delete the recording.
Easy Access to Insights
The desktop app is designed to make it effortless to review and act on meeting outcomes. Here’s how you can easily get insights from the desktop app:
- The Reports page lists all of your meeting reports, whether recorded from the desktop, mobile, or web apps.
- Use this page to easily search, sort, and filter your meeting reports to find exactly what you need.
- The Incomplete tab surfaces reports that failed to generate for any reason; reviewing this will help you avoid issues in the future.
- The Home page also provides quick access to your most recent meeting reports.
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Readout topic reports and daily summaries aren't accessible in the desktop app, but can be found on the web app.
- The meeting reports themselves include the same automatically generated summaries, transcripts, key questions, and action items you'd find on the web app.
- Users on the Enterprise or Enterprise+ plan can also play back the audio and video.
- Reports produced from the desktop's "Record" feature (vs adding a bot with the "Add Read" setting) don't currently include video, coaching, or deep dive metrics.
- You can manage who a report is shared with. If you've connected integrations, you can push the report to other platforms.
- With Ask Read you can unlock the next level of productivity with Read AI.
- Ask Read is both an AI-powered search across all of your content, as well as a chat bot that can answer your questions and produce insightful outputs.
- The more integrations you connect, the more comprehensive and powerful your knowledge base becomes.
- Use Ask Read to quickly retrieve details from specific conversations, summarize across multiple sources of information, or perform analysis to deliver you personalized insights.
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You can even use Ask Read during a live meeting, to get caught up on any details you missed or to pull in relevant context from past conversations based on the current discussion.
- Organize your meeting reports into Folders for easier access and more powerful Ask Read queries.
- Read AI will automatically group your meetings into smart folders based on the type of meeting and topic. Effortlessly keep your one-on-ones separate from your customer calls or your planning sessions.
- You can also create your own custom folders and put reports in as many folders as you want.
- Coming soon, you'll be able to share your folders with other Read AI users, so you can e.g. maintain a team repository of critical knowledge.
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When you open the Ask Read side panel in a folder, your queries will be scoped by default to all the reports in that folder. You can change this with the button in the left of the input box.
Notifications and Reminders
The desktop app also supports various notifications and timely reminders that help you get the most out of Read AI.
- Get reminded about upcoming meetings, and confirm whether you want the Read bot to auto-join or not. If your meeting platform doesn't support the Read bot, you can always record from your computer instead.
- If your bot encounters any recording issues, like if the host isn't letting it into the call, you can get notified. If you can't resolve the issue quickly, you can easily record from your computer instead.
- You can always disable some or all of these notifications from the Desktop App Settings menu (found in the menu when you click your avatar in the top right).
- Additional notifications are coming soon.
Additional Support
Need help? If you have any questions or issues, try searching on this help center. You can also submit a request to our Support Team.