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Google Meet's "Take Notes for me" feature is one particularly useful implementation of AI. When you're on a video call, Gemini can dictate what's being said, offering summaries and highlights of the conversation. Your attention doesn't need to be split between the conversation at hand and writing down notes to remember key points later: The notes are automatically generated as a Google Doc once the meeting is over. It's the kind of feature that sells me more on the whole "AI assistant" thing, much more so than an app trying to order me a coffee.

Video conferencing isn't the only time dictation can be useful, of course. An in-person meeting can benefit from the same perks as a virtual one: Why bother with scribbling down notes on paper or typing away on a laptop when your phone can transcribe the chat on your behalf? I've used the Voice Memos app on my iPhone for the task, since it's easy to record audio and an generate automatic transcription of the conversation that way. But if you're a regular Google Meet user, you now have a similar option in your app of choice, as Meet's "Take Notes for me" feature now supports live, in-person meetings too.

As noted by 9to5Google, here's how it works: You open the Google Meet site or app on your device, but rather than start a call, you can use the "Take Notes for me" option to task Gemini with transcribing and summarizing your discussion. You can hit "Pause" at any time to pause dictation, and "Stop" followed by "Stop taking notes" to end it altogether. You can also transition to a video call if you want to conference in someone who isn't in the same room as you. And, just as with a Google Meet call, Take Notes for me will automatically save the meeting notes in a Google Doc.

Google first announced this feature back in April, but is now widely rolling it out to AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers, as well as Workspace plans. If you have a Workspace account, your admin may need to activate it on their end, at which point you should be able to start recording your own conversations. Google says the feature works across platforms, but will roll out along different timelines: It has been trickling out to Android since Aug. 11; web users will start seeing it today, Aug. 14; and iOS users will see it starting Aug. 31.

There are plenty of alternatives if you don't have "Take Notes for me" available to you in Google Meet. It won't be a perfect match, since Google Meet integrates with your Google account and does more than just transcribe the call, but there are other options worth considering.

As I mentioned, I really like using Apple's built-in tools: Voice Memos can generate automatic transcriptions, which you can save to Apple Notes. But if you don't have an Apple device or you prefer another option, PCMag has a series of recommendations, including Otter.ai, GoTranscript, and Rev.