Show HN: Beesy – Record Google Meets for free, download locally (chrome.google.com)
Happy New Year everyone!
Me and my friend developed this extension to record google meets to the computer directly, there is no cloud dependency, neither do we require any signups, and its free.
We hacked this together in a very small amount of time to check if people would actually use it, so if you find this useful, please let us know so we can improve it.
Also, if you have any feedback/questions/ideas, please do not hesitate and leave a comment.
43 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 87.2 ms ] threadOr you can just put a disclaimer in your extension that some states require two party consent and remind the user to comply with local laws.
Fwiw, I'm on a lot of zoom calls with outside companies that have a "note taker" that is clearly a bot that records video and maybe does transcription. Most of the time it is not mentioned.
I record all my pro teams meeting with OBS in order to be able to watch a part of it in case my attention has been drifting away. It is perfectly legal.
I would totally need their consent if I had any plan to make those videos available to anyone else but that is another subject (diffusion).
I think it is outside the scope of the software to define what one should or shouldn't do depending of every state/country juridiction.
Add it to your “terms of use” as well.
If you decide to turn it into a business, be sure to consult with an attorney (ie. 30mins).
They could easily override `chrome.tabCapture.capture` or some other function that you depend on once the Meet page is loaded.
Also I'll be doing some research on similar extensions on why they are not banned.
Personally, I use: https://www.read.ai/
Records the meetings, provides searchable transcripts, meeting summaries work pretty well, interactions, etc.
The key difference is it joins as a bot, so I don't have to think about it. However, it does require the files are stored in the cloud (although, I read.ai has an option to just track talk time, mute, etc; which doesn't record the meeting).
Not using any cloud would be a plus in my book.
We also plan to add these searchable transcript, summaries and other features but depends on if this stays up :)
Not that they'd probably justify a takedown with that, but more that it could be used to record meeting participants without their consent.
Which is actually a big deal -- all videoconferencing software I'm aware of puts up a big notice and indicator that you are being recorded, and this is for both legal and privacy reasons.
While obviously you could always use any screen recording software (like OBS or even just QuickTime) to secretly record a video meeting... I'm not sure that a tool like this, specifically advertised for recording Meets, is entirely kosher whether legally or according to Meet's TOS. (Of course IANAL.)
If I were you, I'd add ridiculously large multiple disclaimers you have to check and click through to state you agree never to record any meeting participants without their consent. And even with that, I'm not sure how long this will stay up...
But nevertheless, technologically it's a very cool tool, so congrats! :)
It's also possible to record a meeting inconspicuously by using literally any screen recording software. It's even built into macOS (via QuickTime), iOS (native function), and Android (native function).
At the same time, including support for undisclosed meeting recording "out of the box" doesn't seem like a good idea, it's certainly not respectful.
Amusingly (or concerningly?), that is the only one I somehow missed.
:-s
No companies which makes a non trivial amount of money are going to use this plugin instead of buying Google's paid plan.
If you work in a company which will be going to use this plugin, get out of the company immediately and find a new job.
But I'm curious why hasn't google banned other chrome extensions that record google meets and all of them are either paid or free with some limitations, so we're not the only ones bypassing premium gsuite.
In the last ~year I've noticed what seemed to be like a wave of everyone going to Zoom really slowed or in some sectors reversed. There seemed to be a period where it seemed every O365 shop was getting Zoom to do meetings. Lately though I've seen more switch back to using Teams (which admittedly isn't as horrendous for larger calls anymore) as the first choice but not necessarily getting rid of Zoom completely. To be honest the larger the place the more likely they have more solutions.
Meet (and Google Workspace in general) remains a powerhouse in the education space but larger traditional enterprise seems to have problems staying with it when they make the switch often flipping back fully or sometimes mixing it by department. Can't say much about smaller enterprise beyond generally they go with bundled solutions if they are tech or office focused (e.g. Google or Microsoft) or whatever is cheapest otherwise.
I still run into a few Webex calls but really I haven't seen 1/10th as many of these as I used to by ratio. It's basically in the "other" category at this point with things like RingCentral and GoToMeeting.