Recording calls

Callmora can start a recording from the menu bar, a global shortcut, or the main window, and it keeps working normally while one is running. This page covers the controls, the two ways a call can start itself, and what happens if you forget to stop.

Start and stop a recording

• Menu bar panel — click the Callmora icon and press Record call. An Import button sits next to it for a file you already have.
• Global shortcut — set one in Settings → General → Shortcut under Start/stop recording. It works from any app, window open or not, and toggles both start and stop.
• Main window — a record button in the toolbar turns into Stop once recording, with the elapsed time reading beside it.

All three lead to the same recording — only one runs at a time, and none of them need the main window open.

The recording pane

Open a live recording in the main window and you get a calm screen: a breathing voiceprint waveform, a large elapsed timer, and "Recording your call. The transcript and notes appear when you stop." There's no live transcript — the whole call is transcribed, diarized, and summarized as a batch after Stop.

Microphone and call audio

Two pickers decide what gets captured, in Settings → General → Audio and directly in the menu-bar panel:

• Microphone — Off — system audio only, System default, or a specific input device.
• Call audio — All system audio, or a specific running app.

While recording, the panel shows a row for each live source — You (your mic's name) and Call (the app's name) — each with its own pulsing green dot. Off — system audio only leaves your own voice out entirely, useful when you're only sitting in on a call.

Automatic recording for call apps

Turn on Detect calls and offer to record in Settings → Transcription → Recordings and Callmora watches for any app that starts using your microphone — including a browser tab on a call, such as Google Meet inside Chrome, which it can trace back to the browser even though the call runs in a hidden helper process. It only ever offers: a Record this call? card names the app, with a Record button and a menu for two standing choices, Always record {app} automatically or Don't ask for {app} — both remembered per app under Always record / Never ask in the same section, removable there. An app on Always record starts quietly, confirmed by a named notification.

Calendar Join & Record

Turn on Meeting reminders in Settings → General → Reminders (it needs Calendar access) and pick a lead time — At start, or 1, 3, or 5 minutes before. When a calendar event with a video-call link (Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, and others) is about to start, a floating panel appears over any app, showing the meeting's title and "Starts in 3 min · meet.google.com". Its primary button, Join & Record, opens the link and starts recording in one click; a menu offers Join only or Record only instead. An event only qualifies with a join link — a plain block never triggers the panel, and a declined one is skipped.

"Still recording?" and the automatic tail trim

For a recording started manually, by shortcut, or from the calendar panel, Callmora separately watches for you forgetting to stop it. Turn this on with Prompt to stop forgotten recordings, next to the auto-detect toggle. If the call app ends, or the recording goes silent for 12 minutes, a Still recording? card appears with Keep going and Stop now. Leave it unanswered for three minutes and Callmora stops for you, trimming the silent tail, with a notification to confirm it. An auto-detected call trims the same way on its own.

Recording keeps going

• A previous call still processing never blocks the next recording. Transcription and summarization run as a background batch, decoupled from capture — start again right after Stop, while the menu bar shows a small "Transcribing…" hint without disabling the controls.
• The vault locking doesn't touch a live recording either. With app lock encryption on, a lock — idle timeout, screen lock/sleep, or a manual Lock — leaves the lock screen showing a live Recording — banner with the running timer; audio keeps writing to disk, you just can't see other calls until you unlock.

Once a call finishes, see Transcription for how the transcript is produced, and AI notes & chat for what comes out the other end.