Record a Live Meeting on Zoom/Meet/Skype and Other Apps

As society evolves, the trend is to work more flexibly and conveniently. Online video tools facilitate such a trend, allowing team members to communicate whenever and wherever they are. If you are unable to physically attend an online meeting or if you require a video of the meeting to utilize as a resource for your work, you must record a live meeting session.

Most web video solutions only provide conditional recording options, thus in most cases using professional recording software is still necessary. This post will primarily introduce how to record a live meeting session on widely used Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, and Webex platforms. If their own recording features are not suitable for you, here you will find a universal free screen recorder to achieve the same purpose. 

How to Record Live Meeting Sessions with Audio via Built-in Recorders 

Most live meeting and video chat services offer built-in recorders to capture your live meeting, which is usually the easiest way to record a live meeting session. 

Zoom 

Zoom allows both free and paid subscribers to record a live meeting easily during an online meeting, webinar, or another event. Follow the steps below to record Zoom meeting as a host or participant with recording permissions.

1.  Open the Zoom desktop app, log in, and start the Zoom meeting as usual. 

2.  Click the Record icon at the control bar at the bottom of your screen. 

3.  Select Record on this Computer, if there is a menu. You will see a Recording message in the top-left corner while the recording is active.

4.  Click the Pause/Stop Recording button at the bottom to pause or stop recording. 

After the meeting has ended or stopped, Zoom will convert the recording to MP4 format and open the local folder for your access automatically.

Main cons of Zoom recorder

• If you are a participant, you will need the host's permission to record a live meeting. 
• Local recordings can not capture nonverbal feedback or meeting reactions

Google Meet 

Google Meets also allows users to start a recording during a live meeting even if they have a Google Workspace subscription. Follow the steps below to record a Google Meet session as a meeting organizer or a participant with recording permission from the administrator. 

1.  Open the Google Meet desktop app and start presenting.

2.  Click the Activities icon at the bottom right corner and choose Recording > Start Recording > Start. 

3.  Click the Activities icon again and click Stop Recording to stop recording the live meeting session.

The live session recording file will be saved to the organizer's My Drive in the Meeting Recorder folder. An email with the recording link is also sent to the meeting organizer and the person who started the recording.

Main cons of Meet recorder

• You can't record with a free google account plan.
• A participant can use the feature only if the administrator has enabled it. 
• Live captions cannot be recorded. 
• If you join the meeting halfway, you cannot record the live meeting.

Skype 

Skype is another popular video call solution that comes with a native meeting recorder. You can directly record live meeting sessions in the app to cloud-based storage by following the steps below. 

1.  Open the Skype desktop app and start your video call. 

2.  Click the plus icon at the right bottom to bring up more options and click Start recording.

3.  Click Stop recording at the top to stop recording, or just end the call or leave the group call, the recording will stop. 

4.  From your chat, select More options and select Save to Downloads or Save to choose another location to manually save the live meeting recording as an MP4 file within 30 days. 

Main cons of Skype recorder

• Skype doesn't record locally.
• The recording quality of the audio and video is sometimes unreliable.

Webex

You can easily record a live meeting session, webinar, and other events while you are on a Webex video call. Use the steps below to know how to record a Webex meeting as a host or a cohost. 

1.  Open Webex on your PC or Mac. 

2.  Click the Record button at the bottom to expand the menu.

3.  Click Options to select Computer audio to record live meeting sessions with audio. 

4.  Click Record and click Stop to end your current recording.

Your recording will be saved to your computer as an MP4 file or cloud.

Main cons of Webex recorder

• You can't record the live meetings as a participant.
• Recording playback on Windows Media Player isn’t fully supported.

3 Steps to Record Any Live Meeting with iTop Screen Recorder

All built-in meeting recorders within popular online video apps have recording restrictions depending on your subscription plan or your role in the live meeting. To remove all the issues and limitations, it is advisable to use a screen recorder as a universal solution to record any live meetings. iTop Screen Recorder is the best pick for capturing live meeting sessions. 

• It can record live meeting sessions in all video conferencing solutions including Zoom, Google Meet or Hangouts, Microsoft Teams or Skype, Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, Slack, BlueJeans, and more.
• It allows you to record meetings without the host or administrator's permission.
• It can record a live meeting session with both a microphone and system audio.
• It supports 12+ formats (MP4, MP3, FLAC, AVI, MOV, etc.) when you export a live meeting recording.
• It can record EVERYTHING including presentations, participants, text chat, and nonverbal feedback during the meeting.
• It has a free video and audio editor and video compressor to help you make edits to your recordings. 

Step 1: Launch iTop Screen Recorder 

Download iTop Screen Recorder on PC to record screen Windows 10 and Windows 11/8/7. iTop Screen Recorder is 100% safe and reliable, so grant the software any permission it requires for proper use.

Step 2: Configure the recorder 

Click the arrow next to Full Screen to decide if you want to record part of your screen, full screen, or a fixed ratio of your screen. Turn on Speaker and Mic to enable the screen recorder to record a live meeting session with audio. Turn off the mouse click effect if you don't need it. 

Click the three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open Settings. You can configure the save location, hotkeys, video format, etc. there before capturing a video call. 

Step 3: Record a live meeting session 

Start a live meeting in Zoom, Meet, Skype, Webex, or any other app. Click on the REC button to start recording. Press the F9 key on your keyboard to stop recording. Find your live meeting recording in the My Creation > Video folder. You can choose to edit it or export it with a different video format. 

FAQs about Live Session Recording 

How can I record online meetings for free?

Some web video meeting tools only allow paid users to record online meetings for free, so if you want to record a live meeting session for free, you can use the free iTop Screen Recorder.

Can I record a meeting on my computer?

On a computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux, you can record meetings. You can record a meeting on a desktop or laptop computer with the use of web conferencing services and independent live meeting recorders.

Conclusion 

You frequently need to take notes in a crucial business meeting or academic conference to remember key information. But if you get caught up in the conversation, you can miss some important details. A live session recording can be very useful by letting you play it as many times as you like to catch every detail. 

This article walks you through how to record live meeting sessions with audio via built-in meeting recorders. Use iTop Screen Recorder to record a live meeting session without recording authorization and get around these recorders' recording restrictions.