MeetScribe / install

Install and use MeetScribe v0.3.2

Beta: do not use it for confidential meetings. MeetScribe keeps everything in your browser, but the audio and transcript go to OpenRouter and on to a model provider, where we cannot see or verify what happens to them. Where your audio goes has the detail.

MeetScribe is not in the Chrome Web Store yet. You load it yourself, which takes about two minutes, from a zip or from a clone of the repository. Both hold exactly the same files. Build, test and release has the developer's side.

Install from the zip (most people)

  1. Download meetscribe-latest.zip and unzip it. You get a folder called meetscribe; keep it somewhere it will stay, because Chrome loads it from there.
  2. Open chrome://extensions (type it into the address bar) and switch on Developer mode, top right.
  3. Press Load unpacked and pick the meetscribe folder.
  4. Pin VoiceDebrief MeetScribe to the toolbar (the puzzle-piece icon, then the pin). The options page opens by itself the first time.

To update, download the new zip, replace the folder's contents, and press the reload arrow on MeetScribe's card in chrome://extensions. Your meetings and settings are kept.

Every release is kept as releases/meetscribe-vX.Y.Z.zip, with a .sha256 beside it. The zip holds exactly the repository's extension/ folder, byte for byte: the release gate checks it. To check the file you downloaded:

shasum -a 256 meetscribe-latest.zip

and compare with meetscribe-latest.zip.sha256.

Install from a clone (developers)

git clone https://github.com/VoiceDebrief/VoiceDebrief__Chrome_Extension__MeetScribe.git

Then Load unpacked and pick the repository's extension/ folder. After a git pull, press the reload arrow on MeetScribe's card. The options page shows the version, commit and build time, so you can check which build is running.

Set up (once)

The options page

  1. OpenRouter key. Paste a key you made for MeetScribe, with a credit limit, and press Save and test. It saves the key and shows its usage and limit.
  2. Microphone. Press Allow the microphone only if you want your own voice transcribed. Chrome asks here because the capture page is never shown and cannot ask.
  3. Where you hear the meeting. Pick the headset or speakers you use for Meet, and press Play a test tone.
  4. Model. Load the live list shows every OpenRouter transcription model with its listed price per hour. openai/whisper-large-v3 is the starting point until the Phase 0 bake-off picks a default.
  5. The debrief. Pick the language it is written in (voicedebrief.ai's four: English UK or US, Portuguese Portugal or Brazil). The model defaults to google/gemini-3.5-flash, as on voicedebrief.ai.

Use it in a meeting

The side panel before starting

  1. Join the Meet call. While on the Meet tab, click the MeetScribe icon in Chrome's toolbar (or press Alt+Shift+S). That click is what lets Chrome capture the tab. The side panel opens beside Meet and names the tab it will capture. To capture a different tab, go to it and click the icon there.
  2. If you want your own voice too, tick Also transcribe my microphone. It is separate from Meet's mute: use the panel's Mute my mic or Alt+Shift+M.
  3. Tell the participants: Copy notice for Meet's chat and paste it into the chat. Then tick I have told the participants and press Start transcribing. The icon shows REC.
  4. Lines appear in the panel a few seconds after each pause in speech. Meeting is the call; You is your microphone. Dimmed lines are flagged (probable-echo, suspect), never deleted.
  5. Stop, or close the Meet tab. MeetScribe sends what is still waiting and marks the meeting complete.

The side panel during a meeting (test build, fake audio)

Afterwards

Meetings (in the panel's header) lists every meeting. You can:

Delete all MeetScribe data is on the options page.

A meeting with its debrief (test build: fake audio, and replayed responses. The same audio is on both channels, so every "You" line is a probable echo)

What this build answers for the Phase 0 spike

Each spike question from the plan can be answered with this build on a real call. Please note what you see:

QuestionHow to see it
S1Does Start capture the Meet tab after clicking the icon on it? (Answered "no" for opening the panel straight from the icon, on the first real call; v0.3.2 changed the route)The panel names the tab before you start; if capture fails, the panel says why and the message stays
S2Does the microphone work in the capture page after the one-time grant?A microphone problem shows under the meters and on the meeting page
S3How much of the meeting leaks into your microphone on speakers?Count the dimmed probable-echo lines with and without headphones
S4Memory over 2 hourschrome://extensions, MeetScribe, inspect offscreen.html, Memory tab
S5Do the cuts fall between words?The meeting page's "forced cut(s)" count; play a segment with ▶
S6Which model?Change the model on the options page between meetings; the meeting page shows the cost OpenRouter reported
S7Is the mic captured while muted in Meet?Mute in Meet only and speak: a You line appears (expected: yes)
S8Does the meeting stay on your headset?Pick it in options; listen when you press Start

A first test: a short script

  1. Install or update, and check the options page's footer shows 0.3.2.
  2. Make or reuse a capped OpenRouter key; Save and test.
  3. A two-person Meet call, headphones on, microphone on. Talk for five minutes, with one stretch muted in Meet only (S7).
  4. Stop. On the meeting page, check that every second is a line, a gap with a reason, or silence. Play two segments with ▶. Count the forced cuts (S5).
  5. Write the debrief; check every point against the line its time names.
  6. Again on laptop speakers, to count the probable-echo lines (S3).
  7. Export Markdown and JSON, and report the test: the form asks the eight spike questions.

The developer's side (stamping, tests, the gate, release) is on Build, test and release.