Getting started

Lalela is in early access — we're rolling out gradually. If the download isn't available for you yet, join the waitlist at lalela.auxodigital.africa and we'll let you know the moment it's ready.

1. Download and install

Grab the Mac app from lalela.auxodigital.africa (macOS 14+, Apple Silicon) — or join the waitlist there while we roll out early access. On first run, Lalela downloads a transcription model and asks for microphone and system-audio permissions — that's what lets it record both sides of a call without a bot.

2. Record your first meeting

Press record before your call starts — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, a phone bridge through your speakers, or an in-person conversation all work. Lalela can also spot that a meeting has started and offer to record. A clear indicator shows while recording, and you can pause or stop anytime. Transcription and speaker separation happen on your Mac as you go.

Three ways to start

The New button — top of the sidebar and on the Meetings screen — clicks straight through to a recording. Click the small arrow beside it for two more ways to capture something:

• Voice memo — a quick, microphone-only recording for when you're the one talking: a thought on your way out of a meeting, a reminder to yourself, an idea worth keeping. It records only your voice — never the room or the other side of a call — and the moment you stop, what you said becomes the note, already written up and ready to search, enhance and share like any other.
• Blank note — skip recording altogether and just start typing. Lalela opens a fresh note with the cursor already in it. From there it behaves like any meeting: rename it, file it in a folder, ask questions about it, export it.

Take your own notes while it records

While the transcript builds on one side, there's a notepad on the other — type your own notes as the meeting happens. Capture the decisions, questions and follow-ups that matter to you, in your own words. It's a notepad that listens: keep writing while Lalela handles the verbatim record. On iPhone, tap Notes to switch to the notepad and Transcript to watch the conversation.

Your notes are saved with the meeting, so when it ends they're already there in the Notes section alongside the transcript, summary and action items — ready to add to. If Lalela is interrupted mid-meeting, you'll be offered your typed notes back the next time you start recording.

Notes are a log — and everyone's additions are attributed

A meeting's notes are a log of entries, not one block of text. Each entry shows who wrote it and when. Type into the Add a note box and press Add (or ⌘↵) to drop in a new one — during the meeting or long after.

On a shared meeting this is where a team's notes come together: your teammates' entries appear under their names, yours are marked You. Anyone who can see the meeting can add a note, but only you can edit or delete your own — nobody can change what you wrote, and you can't change theirs. It works the same on Lalela for Mac and on the web, so notes you add in either place show up in both.

Ask "What did I miss?" mid-meeting

Stepped away, or joined late? While it's still recording, open Catch up in the recording bar (or press ⌘J) and tap What did I miss? — Lalela reads the conversation so far and gives you a quick recap of the decisions, questions and anything aimed at you. You can also ask your own questions about what's been said. Those catch-up answers are saved into the finished meeting's chat, so anything worth keeping is still there afterwards.

Want help thinking, live?

During a recording, press ⌘⇧A to open the Meeting Copilot — a private, on-screen assistant (Mac only) that suggests what to say next, drafts follow-up questions, and recaps what you missed, all from the conversation so far and only when you ask.

3. Or connect a meeting source

Not ready to switch notetakers? Sign in, open Settings → Connections, and connect Fathom, Read AI, Granola or Microsoft Teams — or add your Fireflies key. Your meetings from those tools sync in automatically, history included, filed with clear provenance. You can also drop in audio or video files, or import DOCX, PDF and VTT transcripts.

4. Your first notes

When the meeting ends you get a transcript with named speakers, a one-click summary in your chosen style, and extracted action items. Ask questions across one meeting or your whole archive — answers cite clickable timestamps. Choose how the AI runs: fully offline, your free monthly allowance, or your own key.

Every action item can be assigned to whoever owns it — start typing a name and pick a teammate from a shared folder, or just type any name and choose Assign to "…". Names you have used before come up as you type, so the same people are one keystroke away next time. Teammates in a shared folder see the tasks meant for them on their own board.

Type / in the chat box to run one of your saved prompts without retyping it — pick from the list and Lalela answers using the same meeting context. In a single meeting's chat, / also lists your workflows so you can run one on the spot.

Turn your rough notes into polished notes

The notes you type during a meeting are yours — half-sentences, shorthand, a reminder to yourself. Enhance my notes turns them into a clean, shareable write-up without losing your voice. It keeps every line you wrote exactly as you wrote it, then fills in the detail around them from the transcript: the number you didn't catch, how a decision was actually worded, the point someone made while you were still typing.

Open a meeting, find Enhanced notes below the Notes log, and click Enhance — Lalela quietly offers it whenever you have notes and a transcript. Everything Lalela adds is greyed and stamped with a clickable timestamp like [3:24], so you can see at a glance what's yours and what came from the conversation — and tap any timestamp to hear exactly where it came from. Your black lines are yours; the grey is the transcript's. It uses the same Model and Response length pickers as your summary, and you can re-run it any time — your original notes are never changed.

Happy with the result? Use as summary makes it this meeting's summary, so it flows straight into every copy, export and share.

Save it as a Word document or a PDF

Export offers both. Either one carries the whole meeting — summary, your notes, and the full transcript with any screens Lalela captured sitting at the moment they were taken, each scaled to fit the page.

Pick Word (.docx) when you want to keep editing it, and PDF when you want the layout fixed or the file small — a meeting with a lot of captured screens is typically several times smaller as a PDF.

5. Put it on autopilot

Once you're recording regularly, set up Automations — rules that tag each new meeting and act on it for you: file it into a folder, draft a summary, run a workflow, or send it onward. Nothing outbound leaves Lalela until you approve it.

Choosing a model and response length

Beside the Generate button on any summary — and in Chat — you'll find two small pickers.

• Model — choose which AI writes the result. The list runs from quick, everyday models to higher-quality ones like Claude Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT-5.1, all covered by your free monthly allowance. The top-tier Claude Opus is marked BYOK: it runs only when you've added your own API key in Settings → AI, so its cost stays with you. On Lalela for Mac you can also pick a local model that runs fully offline, or Apple Intelligence on a supported Mac or iPhone.
• Response length — Standard is the everyday default and lets the model judge how much to write; Detailed asks it to go deeper and write more. Switch it per summary or per chat, or set your usual preference in Settings → New meetings → Response length.

Not sure? Leave both at their defaults — a fast, free model and Standard length work well for most meetings.

Questions? See the FAQ.