Most of your calls happen with people who are not in Tana, customers, partners, candidates, on Zoom, Teams, or Meet. You do not have to move those calls or ask anyone to switch tools to get them into Tana. The desktop app captures them from the side, so the transcript, the screenshots, and the outcomes land in Tana just like a call you hosted there, ready to share with your team.
It is a one-time setup, then a click per call.
Before your first capture
Capture runs in the Tana desktop app, so install and open it if you have not. Then, once:
- Grant permissions. Tana needs microphone and system-audio access so it can hear the call. If either is missing when you start a capture, Tana opens Settings, Permissions so you can grant it and try again.
- Leave Detect external meetings on in Settings, Preferences. It is on by default and lets Tana offer to capture a call that is not on your calendar.
Capture a call
Join your Zoom, Teams, or Meet call the way you always do. You do not move it or change the link; Tana works from the side.
A couple of minutes before a scheduled meeting, a small always-on-top window opens with the meeting title. Click Open & Capture to start recording and open the join link together, or Capture Meeting for a meeting with no link. For a call that is not on your calendar, Tana notices the meeting activity and shows a Meeting in progress card with Capture Meeting; you can also start one from the Today toolbar. Either way Tana creates a matching event for it. Then go back to your call and run it normally.
Tana captures the audio for transcription and takes screenshots of shared screens as you go, and it identifies speakers and lines them up with the transcript. There is no bot in the call and no video recording, just the words and the shared screens. For anything sensitive, stop the capture to pause it.
When the call ends, or you click End capture, Tana processes the conversation into a summary, the outcomes it found, and screenshots from what was shared, all as proposals you review. The same live wrap-ups you get in a Tana call happen here too, so the event fills in without you opening it.
Capture, or move the call to Tana
Two ways to handle a call that lives in another tool:
- Capture records from the side and leaves the call where it is. Use it when you cannot change the link, or when the other people are not on Tana.
- Host meeting in Tana replaces the meeting's video link with a Tana call: the organizer clicks Host meeting in Tana and attendees are notified. Use it when you want the full in-call experience, live outcome capture, the meeting agent, and shared surfaces.
If a capture does not start
No capture window or card. For a scheduled meeting, check that the calendar it lives on is connected. For an unscheduled call, check that Detect external meetings is on in Settings, Preferences.
The capture produced no transcript. This is almost always permissions. Recheck microphone and system-audio access in Settings, Permissions, then capture again.
The call did not show up right away. Synced calendar events can take a moment; give it a beat or refresh.
Tana won't start a capture. A permission is missing. Tana brings itself to the front and opens Settings, Permissions; grant microphone and system-audio access, then try again.