Granola is a free app that takes notes for you during your calls. When the call ends, the summary and the action items are already there, and you can ask it questions about anything that was covered.
It works on any call, from a vendor check-in to a one-on-one to a team meeting, and it needs nothing beyond installing it and letting it run, which makes it the simplest way I know to get time back for the work that moves your projects forward.
It takes notes without joining your call
Granola picks up the audio from your computer, so no bot joins the meeting and nobody sees a strange new name in the participant list. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and other meeting apps, and the phone app can capture in-person conversations too.
You can type your own notes while the call runs if you like, and Granola combines them with the transcript when it writes up the meeting. By the time the call ends, the notes and action items are waiting for you. Granola says it transcribes as the call happens and deletes the audio right away, so only the transcript and notes are kept.
Ask your notes a question
The feature that wins people over is Granola Chat. After a call, or across all of your calls, you can ask something like "What did I promise to do in my meetings this week?" and get an answer pulled from what was actually said. You can also ask it to list the action items or sketch a project plan from the conversation.
Anyone who has tried to reconstruct a vendor call from memory two weeks later will see the appeal right away.
Share it with the people who need it
Notes are private by default, and you decide when to share them. Send one to a teammate who missed the call, a partner who needs the recap, or a client after a planning meeting, and they get the decisions without sitting through the conversation. Shared folders let a team keep every call about the same project in one place, and notes can be sent straight to Slack.
Where it fits in your week
Work runs on conversations, and these are the calls where Granola earns its keep:
- The planning call. The meeting where a plan gets agreed is the one you most want in writing, with dates and owners attached.
- Agency and vendor calls. Conversations with agencies and vendors are full of small decisions that are hard to remember a week later.
- Partner and client check-ins. Ask your notes what was promised, such as deliverables, approvals, or deadlines, and you have the answer in seconds.
- Calls with the rest of your team. Sales, partnerships, and support conversations all end with commitments, and Granola keeps them in one place you can search.
- Your weekly team meeting. Ask what you committed to this week and you have your to-do list.
What to know before you try it
Tell people you are using it. Granola's own guidance is to let everyone on the call know you are transcribing, and because no bot joins the meeting, it is easy for people to miss that anything is being recorded. Check your company's rules first as well, since some teams are not allowed to use AI at all, and skim the notes before you forward anything, because they are a first draft.
The free plan includes unlimited meeting notes, but it only lets you view notes from the last 30 days. The Business plan is $14 per user per month and removes that limit, according to Granola's pricing page. Granola is SOC 2 Type II certified, and you can opt out of having your notes used to train its models.
Start with one call
Pick one call this week, install Granola, and let it run. By the end you will have notes you did not have to write, and more time for the work that moves your projects forward.
It also sits comfortably next to the rest of your stack. Granola handles the conversations, and Hive handles the ticket data and campaigns that come out of them.
Which meeting notes tool do you use, and why? Tell us in the Backstage community, and tell us which tool you want covered next.
