---
title: "On-device meeting notes for Mac"
description: "Learn how on-device meeting notes capture two audio tracks, transcribe and summarize locally, ground action items, and keep retention under user control."
canonical: https://heypace.app/on-device-meeting-notes-mac/
last-updated: 2026-08-27
---
# On-device meeting notes for Mac

Learn how on-device meeting notes capture two audio tracks, transcribe and summarize locally, ground action items, and keep retention under user control.

On-device meeting notes keep capture, transcription, and synthesis on the Mac instead of uploading a conversation to a hosted note-taking service. This matters most when the meeting contains customer data, hiring discussions, strategy, credentials, or other information that should not become a third party's default input.

## The local pipeline

A complete workflow captures the user's microphone and the other side of the call, preserves the tracks, transcribes them locally, segments the conversation, and generates a summary, decisions, and action items with links back to source moments. Storage location, retention, and deletion should be visible.

## Pace meeting mode

Pace records two local audio tracks for a meeting: the user's microphone and system or call audio. When the meeting stops, local transcription feeds a privacy-pinned local note model. The output includes structured notes and transcript-grounded action items. Meeting files are ordinary local artifacts under Pace's application-support directory and use a configurable retention policy documented in the product; the current default described by the public FAQ is 30 days.

The privacy pin is important: enabling a cloud or command-line planner elsewhere in Pace does not allow meeting-note synthesis to use it. A user can still choose external applications or workflows outside that boundary, but Pace's meeting synthesis path remains local.

## What to evaluate

- Does the app capture both sides reliably on the target Mac?
- Are transcripts and notes generated without a network fallback?
- Can an action item show the source quote or timestamp?
- Are files easy to locate, export, and delete?
- Is retention configurable and enforced?
- Are microphone and screen or system-audio permissions clear?

## Honest limits

Local transcription and synthesis consume memory, storage, and battery. Accuracy depends on audio quality, speakers, language, and the installed local models. A generated summary should be treated as a draft, and important decisions should be checked against the transcript.

**CTA:** Review Pace's meeting privacy details and FAQ, then download Pace for Apple Silicon.