How to Transcribe a FaceTime Call on a Mac

FaceTime has no Record button for most calls, so people assume a transcript isn't possible. It is, three ways. Which one fits depends on whether the call is audio or video, and on how many people are on it.

Option 1: Apple's Call Recording, for one-to-one audio calls

On recent versions of macOS, FaceTime can record an audio call when you're talking to one other person. During the call, click the More button and choose Call Recording. Both of you hear a notice that the call is being recorded. Afterwards the recording and its transcript are in the Notes app, in the Call Recordings folder, and with Apple Intelligence you can ask for a summary.

It is built in and free, and it tells the other person for you. Its limits are in Apple's own description: audio calls, with one other person. Apple also says availability depends on your language and region. A FaceTime video call, or a call with three people on it, needs another route.

Option 2: Live Captions, for reading along

Live Captions put what's being said on screen as text during a FaceTime video call, worked out on your Mac. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon. Turn it on from the Live Captions control in the FaceTime window.

Captions are made for following a call as it happens, which is a different job from a transcript. They scroll past as people speak and aren't saved for you as a document of the call, with names, to search or send later.

Option 3: Record the call on your Mac

Your Mac is already playing the other side of the call. An app that records from the Mac can transcribe any FaceTime call, video or audio, with two people or ten. Enzo works this way: it records your microphone and the sound coming out of your Mac, transcribes on the Mac, and writes down who said what by name.

1. Install Enzo and allow System Audio when it asks. That one-time macOS permission lets it hear the other side of a call.
2. When the call starts, press your recording key. Or choose Meeting recording in Enzo's Recording settings, and Enzo starts when a FaceTime call begins and stops when it ends.
3. Have the call. No notice plays and nothing joins it, so say that you're recording.
4. When it ends, the transcript is in Speak with each voice separated and named. Click a speaker to say who it was, and Enzo knows that voice next time.

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The audio never leaves your Mac. Notes after the call are written by Enzo's cloud AI from the transcript, and you can turn them off. The same setup records Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Slack huddles. More on the meeting transcription page.

Tell people you're recording

Apple's Call Recording plays a notice to both people. A recording made by an app on your Mac doesn't, so the telling is yours to do. Many places require everyone's consent, and it is the decent thing to do anywhere.

Which one should you use?

• A one-to-one audio call, and Call Recording is available where you live: use Apple's. It is already on your Mac.
• You only need to follow what's being said during the call: turn on Live Captions.
• A video call, a group call, or a transcript with names that you can search later: record it on your Mac. How speaker names work.