Parley is a free, open-source meeting notes app for recording conversations, producing live transcripts, and creating meeting reports. Transcripts separate speakers, while reports connect takeaways, commitments, and next steps to timestamps in the recording. Its desktop app captures both sides of an online call and searches across the meeting library. Users can choose providers including Soniox, Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, Groq, Qwen, Kimi, Ollama, OpenRouter, and self-hosted endpoints. The desktop edition can run entirely on the user’s computer without cloud services enabled. Parley also offers a local MCP server for AI clients, with 54 tools, and Mac voice typing through Option-Space. The cloud edition syncs recordings and transcripts to an account over encrypted connections. On iPhone, recording is limited to room audio through the microphone. The Android app is built but not yet on Google Play.
Who it is for
Parley suits people who want meeting capture, searchable transcripts, and reports while choosing between cloud, local, or self-hosted AI options. It also fits Mac users wanting voice typing across apps.
What is good
- Free and open source
- Live transcripts separate speakers
- Reports link actions to recording timestamps
- Desktop search covers older meetings
- Can run locally without cloud services
What to know first
- iPhone cannot record calls or other app audio
- Android app is not yet on Google Play
- Cloud edition syncs recordings and transcripts
- Two transcription languages listed
Verdict
Parley offers broad meeting capture with provider choice and a local operating mode. Check the mobile recording limits and Android availability before choosing it for phone-based meetings.
Parley plans and pricing
All plansCompared on AI meeting assistants
- Free plan
- Yes
- Transcription
- Yes
- Summaries and action items
- Yes
- Meeting capture
- desktop
- Transcription languages
- 2 languages
