Does Circleback join the meeting as a bot?
It depends on the mode. Circleback can send a bot that appears in your participant list, and it also ships a macOS and Windows desktop app that records your microphone and computer audio with no bot joining. Reline only does the second, and it also runs on Linux and in the browser.
It depends on the mode. Circleback can send a bot that appears in your participant list, and it also ships a macOS and Windows desktop app that records your microphone and computer audio with no bot joining. Reline only does the second, and it also runs on Linux and in the browser.
The details
- Circleback's support documentation describes the desktop app as recording on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or any other platform without the Circleback bot joining as a participant, capturing your microphone and computer audio directly from your machine.
- The bot is still there until you switch it off. Circleback tells you to turn off your joining preferences under Settings then Calendar if you would rather always record with the desktop app and never have the bot join.
- Credit where it is due: the Circleback desktop app also captures video of the meeting window by default. Reline does not. Reline is audio only.
- Reline has one capture mode and it is always local, so there is no calendar preference that can quietly put a bot back into your calls next quarter.
- Where Reline differs: it runs in any browser and on Linux as well as macOS and Windows, it keeps the audio so you can press play on a transcript line and hear that exact moment, and it transcribes 60+ languages. Capture is local, transcription and AI run in the cloud.
Last updated August 2026
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