How does transcription work?

Superthread can transcribe audio directly from your laptop without a bot needing to join the call. This means Superthread will work regardless of which meeting app you use, and also works for in-person meetings. You can start, pause, and resume transcription at any time. You have full control over when it’s on and no audio is ever stored, we only transcribe.

Transcription is only available when using the Superthread apps:

  • MacOS desktop app
  • Notes iOS mobile app – this is a streamlined app designed for the sole purpose of transcribing in-person meetings. It does not support any other Superthread features (such as boards or pages).

Does Superthread know who is talking?

Superthread will transcribe your device’s microphone as me and the system audio as them. If you are having a call with more than 2 participants, we do not log the different speakers in the transcript. They are collectively transcribed as ‘them’.

When does transcription start?

You are in full control and can start/pause/resume transcription at any time. You’ll know when transcription is active because you’ll see a blue dancing bars animation in Superthread.

Superthread starts transcribing when you:

  • Manually create a new note by clicking the ‘New note’ button.
  • Click the Superthread reminder notification when a meeting is about to begin.
  • Click the Superthread notification when we automatically detect an impromptu conversation.
  • Click the ‘Transcribe’ or ‘Resume’ button within an existing note.

When does transcription stop?

  • When you click ‘Pause’ on the transcribe button in the note.
  • After 8 minutes of silence.

Viewing the transcript

You can view the live transcript at any time during the meeting by clicking the ‘blue dancing bars’ icon. This is mainly to reassure you that everything is working. The transcript may not be 100% accurate, but this should not affect the quality of the final notes when they are enhanced using AI.

Automatic meeting detection

Some meetings are not in your calendar or happen outside of a traditional meeting app. For example jumping on an impromptu ‘quick call’ in a Slack huddle. Superthread can detect when a meeting app is using your microphone and remind you to start transcription. With this setting switched on, you’ll get a notification in the top right corner of your screen when a meeting starts.

You can choose which meeting apps you’d like to be reminded about in Settings > Account > Notes

Meeting jargon

Superthread transcription is usually reliable but it can occasionally struggle with niche industry-specific terms or internal jargon. If this happens frequently, you can add words it struggles with in the ‘Jargon for transcription’ field in Settings > Account > Notes. This will only improve new transcriptions, it will not correct old ones.

This feature works best when used sparingly. Adding too many words can cause the AI to over correct itself.

Keeping your conversations private

We fully understand that conversations often contain sensitive talking points. In addition to being able to pause and resume transcription at any time, we take the utmost care when handling your data. You can read all about how we keep you conversations private and secure here: https://superthread.com/security

You can share a ‘view-only’ version of a note on a public URL. Click the Share button and turn on ‘Share to the web’. This will generate a shared version of the notes that can be viewed by anybody with the link.