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Record Google Meet (browser extension)

The Vistilla Recorder extension for Chrome and Brave records a Google Meet call (or any tab) with one click: the picture, everyone's voices and your own, saved straight to your Vistilla library, ready for a transcript and a summary.

Download the extension

Install it

The extension is not in the Chrome Web Store, so it is added from the downloaded folder. It takes a minute, once.

  1. Download the extension with the button above, and unzip it. You get a folder called vistilla-recorder. Keep it somewhere it will stay, such as Documents: the browser runs the extension from it.
  2. Open the extensions page: type chrome://extensions in the address bar (in Brave, brave://extensions) and press Enter.
  3. Turn on Developer mode (the switch in the top-right corner).
  4. Press Load unpacked and choose the vistilla-recorder folder.
  5. A welcome page opens. Do its three steps: pin Vistilla to the toolbar (the puzzle piece, then the pin), allow the microphone (the browser asks by itself as the page opens: press Allow), and sign in to Vistilla if you are not already.

Already signed in

The extension uses your Vistilla account on the website. If you are signed in to Vistilla in this browser, there is nothing more to do.

Record a meeting

  1. Join your Google Meet call.
  2. Press Record this meeting in the Vistilla bar at the top of the call. Chrome asks to share this tab: press Share. That is all. (The Vistilla button in the toolbar, Alt + Shift + R and the right-click menu's Record this tab with Vistilla start it too, without that question.)
  3. A bar at the top of Meet shows the time, with Pause and Stop and save. You can switch to other tabs: the meeting keeps recording.
  4. Press Stop and save. The recording opens in Vistilla a moment later.

Before you press Record you can change the title (it starts as the meeting's name and the time), the channel it goes to, who can see it (the team, or only you), and whether your microphone is on.

What is recorded

  • The picture of the Meet tab: the people, and whatever anyone presents.
  • Everyone's voices, from the tab, and your own voice from your microphone. Turn it off or on at any moment with the My microphone switch in the Vistilla toolbar window, even while recording. Muting yourself in Meet mutes you in the recording too.
  • Nothing from other tabs or other windows.

Tell people you are recording

Meet does not tell the others that the extension is recording. Let them know before you start.

While you record

  • The recording goes up to Vistilla as it is made, so when the meeting ends there are only a few seconds left to send, even after an hour.
  • If the connection drops, the extension keeps the recording and keeps trying. If Vistilla still cannot be reached when you stop, the whole recording is saved to your computer (in Downloads) instead, and you can upload it from the library later. A meeting is never lost.
  • Closing the Meet tab stops the recording and saves it.
  • Discard this recording (in the toolbar window) throws it away.

It also records any tab

On any other page the button reads Record this tab: a video playing in the browser, a web presentation, a demo. It works the same way.

Updates

When a new version is out, the toolbar window shows Update now. Press it: the extension downloads the new version, installs it and restarts by itself, like the Android app.

The first time, it asks you to choose the vistilla-recorder folder (the one you unzipped when you installed it), so it may write the new version there; the welcome page offers this too (Turn on one-click updates). Chrome may also ask you to Allow it now and then. Keep Developer mode on in chrome://extensions: Chrome switches folder-loaded extensions off without it.

In Brave: switch on folder access once

Brave keeps folder access off, so Choose the folder cannot open until you switch it on: open brave://flags/#file-system-access-api (the extension's Open the setting button opens it), set File System Access API to Enabled, press Relaunch, then choose the folder. Chrome needs nothing.

Coming from version 0.2.0 or older

Those versions have no Update now button. Update them once by hand: download the zip above, unzip it over the old vistilla-recorder folder, and press the reload arrow on the extension's card in chrome://extensions. From then on, updates are one click.

Questions

Does it work in Edge, Firefox or Safari? It is made for Chrome and Brave. Edge may work the same way (edge://extensions); Firefox and Safari do not.

Why does Chrome ask to share the tab? When you start from the bar on the Meet page, the browser asks before any page may record itself: it is the browser's rule, so nothing is recorded without you agreeing. Starting from the toolbar button, Alt + Shift + R or the right-click menu counts as agreeing, so there is no question. While recording, Chrome's own "sharing this tab" bar shows too; its Stop sharing stops and saves the recording.

Only the others can be heard. The microphone was not allowed. Open the toolbar window: if the browser has not been asked yet, a page opens and asks; press Allow. If you blocked it before, allow it again in the browser's Settings → Privacy and security → Site settings → Microphone.