> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.buildbetter.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Recorder Changelog
> Updates to BuildBetter Recorder — the desktop and mobile recording app for meetings, calls, and dictation.
This page tracks **BuildBetter Recorder** — the desktop and mobile recording apps. For the main BuildBetter web app, see the [BuildBetter Changelog](/changelog). For the `bb` CLI, see the [CLI Changelog](/cli-changelog).
Scope tags below: **\[Shared]** = desktop + mobile · **\[Desktop]** = desktop only · **\[iOS]** = iPhone · **\[Android]** = Android · **\[iOS/Android]** = shared mobile.
These updates make recording, transcription, and Plaud device support more dependable across desktop and iPhone. The release focuses on making setup easier, reducing confusing states, and improving reliability during real-world use.
### 🚀 New Features
* **\[iOS] Plaud Recorder Support on iPhone:** You can now connect a Plaud device in the iOS app to manage recordings, browse files, and import audio directly into your BuildBetter recordings library.
* **\[iOS] Faster Plaud Imports with Wi‑Fi:** Plaud recordings can now be transferred over Wi‑Fi for quicker imports, alongside the standard import option.
* **\[Desktop] Easier AI Transcription Setup:** AI transcription settings have been redesigned with clearer provider cards and built-in setup flows for on-device transcription, BuildBetter cloud, and your own API key providers.
* **\[Desktop] Meeting Detection Toggle:** You can now turn meeting detection on or off with a setting that stays saved, and the app will respect that choice across desktop setup and settings.
* **\[Desktop] Notion Beta Enabled by Default:** If you haven’t opted out, the new Notion experience is now turned on automatically so it’s available right away.
### ✨ Improvements & Enhancements
* **\[Desktop] More Accurate Auto-Recording:** Automatic recording now waits for stronger meeting signals before starting, helping avoid unwanted recordings.
* **\[Desktop] Safer Auto-Stop Behavior:** The app is better at stopping the correct recording and is less likely to interrupt recordings you started manually.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Live Transcription:** Live transcription now stays more responsive during slowdowns by prioritizing recent speech and reducing lag from backed-up audio.
* **\[Desktop] Better End-of-Recording Responsiveness:** Transcription wraps up faster after a recording ends while still allowing a short moment for final transcript updates to arrive.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Notion Settings Reliability:** Notion settings now refresh more reliably, support more connection formats, and offer clearer recovery options if settings fail to load.
* **\[iOS] Refreshed iPhone App Navigation:** The Recordings, Settings, and Upcoming screens now have a more polished native look with updated headers and settings styling.
* **\[iOS] Better Plaud Setup Experience:** Plaud setup is now simpler, with automatic workspace selection when possible, clearer status messages, and better guidance when sign-in or workspace selection is required.
* **\[iOS] Cleaner Plaud Device Management:** Disabling or resetting Plaud now clears connection state more cleanly, reducing stale status messages and confusing scan states.
* **\[iOS] Clearer Plaud Recording Details:** Imported Plaud recordings are now labeled as coming from a Plaud device, and their timestamps are more accurate for sorting.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer Language Diagnostics:** Feedback and Slack summaries now show transcription language details more clearly, including selected and detected language when available, plus guidance that auto-detect may be less reliable for short or noisy audio.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Window Style Updates:** Desktop window style changes now apply more consistently across the app, including smoother updates after onboarding or when switching between notch and floating modes.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **\[Desktop] Meeting Detection Fully Respects Off State:** Fixed an issue where meeting detection could continue running even after being turned off.
* **\[Desktop] Active Meeting Status Clears Correctly:** Stopping or disabling meeting detection no longer leaves the app incorrectly showing an active meeting.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Cloud Transcription Recovery:** Fixed issues where stalled live transcription streams could stop updating, replay old audio, or show duplicate and out-of-order transcript text after reconnecting.
* **\[Desktop] BuildBetter Transcription Startup No Longer Hangs:** Fixed a problem where live transcription could get stuck at startup. The app now times out gracefully and shows a clear error so you can retry or switch providers.
* **\[Desktop] Desktop Local AI Models Work More Reliably:** Fixed packaged desktop builds so bundled local AI features no longer depend on missing machine-specific files.
* **\[Desktop] macOS Native Components Load Correctly:** Fixed macOS app packaging issues that could prevent important native components from loading properly.
* **\[iOS] Plaud Bluetooth Fallback Works Again:** Fixed Plaud connection so it can still connect through Bluetooth when a device token isn’t available.
* **\[iOS] Plaud Setup Handles Workspace Changes Properly:** Fixed Plaud initialization and status refresh issues when switching BuildBetter workspaces.
* **\[iOS] Plaud Connection Errors Are Clearer:** Fixed Plaud setup so connection attempts won’t continue before initialization is complete, with clearer error messages when setup is missing required information.
* **\[iOS] BuildBetter Transcription on iPhone Is More Reliable:** Fixed iOS issues where BuildBetter transcription could fail during startup or miss transcript updates because of backend message format differences.
* **\[iOS] Chat Sheet No Longer Overlaps Controls on Mobile:** Fixed the mobile chat view so it appears above floating controls and avoids layout overlap.
* **\[Desktop] Notch and Floating Bar Layout Issues Fixed:** Fixed desktop UI issues where the recorder could show the wrong layout after onboarding or when switching between notch and floating modes.
This update adds more transcription choice across desktop and mobile, especially with OpenAI and on-device iPhone support, while making recording, summaries, and transcript regeneration more reliable. It also smooths out many everyday issues around permissions, device changes, startup stability, and final transcript accuracy.
### 🚀 New Features
* **\[Desktop] OpenAI Speech-to-Text:** Use OpenAI for live transcription and for retranscribing saved recordings, with model selection.
* **\[Desktop] Video Meeting Recording Controls:** Settings include controls for video + audio or audio-only capture, plus clearer availability and setup status.
* **\[iOS] OpenAI Speech-to-Text:** OpenAI live transcription and retranscription on iPhone, with model selection.
* **\[iOS] On-Device Transcription on iPhone:** Parakeet on-device transcription with live + post-recording modes and built-in model download/management.
* **\[Shared] Cloud Model Picker:** Choose between cloud AI model options for supported providers directly in Settings without re-entering your API key.
* **\[Shared] Retranscription Progress Indicator:** Live progress updates while regenerating a transcript.
* **\[Shared] AI Quality Indicator:** Chat and summary screens show an AI quality badge with model details and a shortcut to Settings.
### ✨ Improvements
* **\[Desktop] Clearer Video Meeting Recording Language:** Simpler, friendlier wording in settings and status messages.
* **\[Shared] Better Transcription Setup Guidance:** Setup screens better show when OpenAI or Parakeet is ready and what's missing.
* **\[Desktop] Easier Parakeet Setup:** Clearer model status, download progress, upgrade prompts, supported-model guidance.
* **\[Shared] Smarter Summary Progress Feedback:** Clearer progress and completion states while summaries generate.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Audio Device Handling:** Default mics/speakers marked clearly; system device changes followed reliably during recording.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Dictation Behavior:** Dictation waits briefly for trailing speech before stopping, preserving last words.
* **\[Desktop] Improved macOS Permission Flow:** Screen recording and camera permission messaging is clearer and refreshes reliably after grant/deny.
* **\[Desktop] Better macOS Update Guidance:** Warns when the app runs from a location where automatic updates won't work (e.g., outside Applications).
* **\[iOS/Android] Smoother Mobile Startup and Navigation:** More reliable mobile startup, clearer loading/error states, more responsive onboarding and recording.
* **\[iOS] Faster Mobile Recording Response:** Mobile recording feels quicker and less likely to stall on start/stop.
* **\[iOS] More Reliable Saved Recordings:** iPhone recordings preserved more safely, reducing accidental loss from temporary storage.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Local AI Output Formatting:** Local AI responses preserve spacing and formatting (lists, indentation) more accurately.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer Local AI Error Messages:** Local AI requests that are too large get clearer fix guidance.
* **\[Desktop] Better Long Transcript Progress Updates:** Step-by-step progress on long retranscriptions instead of appearing stuck.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Transcript Panel Layout:** Transcript controls behave better on small desktop window sizes.
* **\[Shared] Updated Transcription Quality Ratings:** Clearer 7-level scale for comparing privacy and accuracy tradeoffs between providers.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **\[Shared] More Reliable Final Transcript Capture:** Stopping a recording or dictation is less likely to cut off the last few spoken words.
* **\[Shared] Better Recovery from Cloud Transcription Disconnects:** Cloud transcription recovers more reliably from connection issues and preserves more transcript content.
* **\[Shared] Fixed Empty Summary Results:** Failed summary generation now reports the problem instead of finishing silently with nothing saved.
* **\[iOS] Fixed White Screen and Startup Crashes:** Mobile startup more stable; fixed blank screens, init failures, render crashes.
* **\[iOS] Fixed Recording State Issues:** App stays in sync with actual recording state more reliably during slow starts or failed stops.
* **\[iOS] Fixed Loss of Recordings:** Existing iPhone recordings moved into durable storage more reliably.
* **\[iOS] Fixed Parakeet Final Transcript Loss:** Stopping a Parakeet recording flushes remaining audio more safely so final speech isn't lost.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Parakeet Retranscription for Saved Recordings:** Regenerating transcripts now works correctly for Parakeet recordings, including long ones that previously could fail or crash.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Speaker Labels in Retranscription:** Retranscribed recordings with speaker detection keep more of the transcript and apply speaker labels more accurately during fast speaker switches.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed macOS Camera Permission Issues:** Webcam overlay and camera access on macOS request and report permissions more reliably.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Auto-Update Problems on macOS:** App avoids install attempts from unsupported locations and shows clearer guidance instead of failing silently.
* **\[Shared] Fixed Authentication Refresh Glitches:** Intermittent sign-in failures from overlapping refresh attempts are less likely.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Local AI Hangs and Broken Characters:** Local AI generation more stable; less likely to freeze or produce malformed text.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Missing Transcript Panel Controls:** Close and copy buttons in the transcript view remain visible more reliably.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Popovers Near Screen Edges:** Quality and settings popovers display correctly on small or narrow windows.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Floating Bar After Switching from Notch:** Switching window style from notch to floating no longer leaves the bar clipped — geometry resets fully without an app restart.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Notch After Onboarding:** Finishing onboarding with the notch style no longer shows a squashed, upside-down floating bar — the main window switches to the notch UI correctly.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed BuildBetter Transcription Hang:** A stalled credits check or WebSocket handshake no longer blocks live transcription forever — the app gives up after 45 seconds with a clear "session start timed out" error.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Notarization for Bundled Frameworks:** Release builds with the video meeting recording SDK now sign every nested binary individually with a secure timestamp, so Apple notarization no longer rejects inner GStreamer dylibs.
### 🚀 New Features
* **\[Desktop] Retranscription Progress Updates:** Live status updates in the transcript pane — loading audio, uploading, transcribing, saving.
* **\[Desktop] Cloud Model Picker:** Choose between available cloud AI models in Settings → AI without re-entering API keys.
* **\[Shared] AI Quality Indicators:** Chat, summaries, and transcripts show clearer quality and provider details — which model or transcription engine was used and what to expect.
* **\[iOS] Expanded iOS AI Options:** Choose on-device AI, BuildBetter, or your own OpenAI / Anthropic / Groq keys for summaries and chat on iPhone/iPad.
* **\[iOS] iOS API Key Management:** Add, review, and remove supported AI API keys directly in Settings with secure storage.
* **\[iOS] BuildBetter Transcription on iOS:** iOS supports BuildBetter as a transcription option, including live transcription and cloud retranscription.
* **\[Shared] Back-to-Back Recording Preferences:** Choose how overlapping meetings are handled — prompt, auto-split, or keep as one.
* **\[Desktop] Recording Split, Merge, and Archive Actions:** Supported recordings include user-facing options to split, merge, or archive from Recording Detail.
* **\[Desktop] Archived Recordings:** Archive instead of delete; hidden from the main list, restorable later.
* **\[Desktop] Clear Chat:** Recording chat threads can be cleared from the chat header.
* **\[Desktop] macOS Meeting Notifications:** Notified when a new meeting starts while another recording is in progress.
* **\[Desktop] Speaker Identification Banner:** Transcripts show a clearer in-app prompt when speaker identification is off, with a one-click enable.
* **\[Desktop] Setup Wizard Feedback Button:** Send feedback directly from the setup flow.
* **\[Shared] Post-Call Rating Controls:** Disable rating prompts from Settings or pick "Don't ask me again" in the rating dialog.
* **\[Desktop] macOS Screen Recording:** Record a full display or single window on macOS, with optional mic audio, system audio, and webcam overlay.
* **\[Desktop] Screen Recording Setup Window:** Dedicated setup for sources, audio options, and camera placement.
* **\[Desktop] Screen Recording Library:** Screen recordings have their own library view, separate from audio.
* **\[Desktop] Goal-Based Onboarding:** Onboarding adapts to whether you want meeting recording, voice capture, and/or screen recording.
### ✨ Improvements
* **\[Desktop] Clearer Retranscription Warnings:** Regenerate-transcript dialog explains speaker-identification tradeoffs.
* **\[Desktop] Better Speaker Paragraphs:** Retranscribed transcripts grouped into cleaner speaker paragraphs.
* **\[Desktop] More Accurate Speaker Assignment:** Better labeling around short interjections and overlapping speech.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Long Recording Handling:** Long retranscriptions process more smoothly with better progress updates and fewer backend limits.
* **\[Desktop] Faster Parakeet on Apple Silicon:** Local Parakeet retranscription uses Apple hardware acceleration when available.
* **\[Desktop] More Responsive Transcript Panel:** Controls stay visible at narrower window sizes.
* **\[Shared] Updated Model Names and Defaults:** Names, descriptions, and defaults refreshed to reflect current options and quality.
* **\[Desktop] Smoother Settings Experience:** AI model lists load smoothly and preserve existing API key details when you switch models.
* **\[Desktop] Better Transcript Quality Details:** Transcript status shows which provider, model, and speaker-labeling method were used, with safe fallbacks for older recordings.
* **\[iOS] Streaming AI Responses on iOS:** Cloud AI responses stream live for more responsive chat.
* **\[Shared] Better BuildBetter Reliability:** BuildBetter transcription more resilient to temporary disconnects; recovers automatically in more cases.
* **\[Shared] Credit Exhaustion Alerts:** Clearer warnings when BuildBetter credits run out, with a quick path to switch settings.
* **\[Shared] Automatic BuildBetter Defaults:** Eligible workspace users get BuildBetter selected automatically for transcription and snippet cleaning, preserving manual choices.
* **\[iOS/Android] Improved Mobile Experience:** Classic and Retro themes, theme switcher, better playback controls, mobile retranscription, configurable mic sample rate.
* **\[Desktop] Smarter Recording Actions:** Split/merge/archive include clearer confirmations and hide when they don't apply.
* **\[Desktop] Shorter "Catch Me Up" Recaps:** Concise three-bullet summary.
* **\[Shared] Improved Onboarding Messaging:** Setup explains AI quality, speed, download size, permissions, and speaker-identification tradeoffs more clearly.
* **\[Desktop] Visible Diarization Download Size:** Speaker identification download size shown upfront during setup.
* **\[Shared] Less Disruptive Rating Prompts:** Post-call rating prompts appear after recording review, not immediately at end.
* **\[iOS] Refreshed iOS Onboarding:** Cleaner, more native look with clearer setup steps.
* **\[iOS/Android] Classic Theme by Default:** New mobile installs start with the Classic theme.
* **\[Desktop] Better Screen Recording Workflow:** More consistent behavior from setup through final processing; completed videos used reliably for playback, upload, sharing.
* **\[Desktop] Screen Recordings Get Post-Processing:** Same titles and summaries treatment as audio recordings when transcripts are available.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Folder Management:** Clearer folder handling with a visible main Recordings folder, better filtering, and rename/move support.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Dashboard Navigation:** Opening directly to areas like Recordings works more consistently.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **\[Desktop] Full Transcript Preservation:** Retranscription with speaker identification no longer drops text from short segments.
* **\[Desktop] Safer Diarization Fallbacks:** If speaker identification fails, the app keeps the full transcript instead of returning partial.
* **\[Desktop] Fixed Speaker Label Collapsing:** Retranscribed conversations no longer collapse into a single "Speaker 0" block when speaker separation is available.
* **\[Desktop] Parakeet Retranscription Restored:** Parakeet recordings can be retranscribed correctly again.
* **\[Desktop] Long Parakeet Crash Fix:** Long local Parakeet retranscriptions no longer crash the desktop app.
* **\[Desktop] Transcript Controls Visible Again:** Close and Copy buttons in the transcript panel no longer disappear at medium window sizes.
* **\[Desktop] Quality Popover Positioning:** Popovers stay readable instead of being clipped at window edges.
* **\[Desktop] Older Recording Metadata Fallbacks:** Older recordings without saved provider details show safer fallback info instead of misleading labels.
* **\[iOS] iOS Theme Onboarding Fix:** Onboarding always uses the intended appearance, even if a different theme was previously saved.
* **\[iOS] Version Display Fix:** Version and build info correctly match the current release.
* **\[Shared] BuildBetter Speaker Numbering Fix:** Retranscribed speakers now start at Speaker 1 for consistency.
* **\[Desktop] Settings Shortcut Fix:** "Open Settings" from credit warnings works more reliably, even from the recorder window.
* **\[iOS/Android] Mobile Reliability Fixes:** Better onboarding layout on modern iPhones, more reliable feedback submission, improved long-recording stability, better transcript finalization on end.
* **\[Shared] BuildBetter Login Fallback:** Selecting BuildBetter without the required login or workspace falls back safely instead of failing silently.
* **\[Desktop] Auto-Split Timing Fix:** Back-to-back meeting auto-splitting happens at the correct time.
* **\[Desktop] Invalid Split/Merge Protection:** Unsupported split/merge actions blocked safely to prevent broken results.
* **\[Shared] Token Refresh Reliability:** Authentication refreshes more reliably before expiry, reducing intermittent failures.
* **\[Desktop] BuildBetter Retranscription Fix:** Saved recordings use BuildBetter correctly for retranscription instead of falling back to the wrong backend.
* **\[Shared] BuildBetter Transcript Fidelity:** Retranscriptions better preserve speaker labels, timing, and confidence.
* **\[iOS] Calendar Loading Feedback on iOS:** "Show calendars" setting gives clearer loading, retry, and empty-state feedback.
* **\[Shared] Deepgram Language Fixes:** Selected languages and auto-detect work correctly across live and retranscription, improving multilingual accuracy.
* **\[Desktop] Faster "No Transcript Found" Feedback:** Recordings that never produce a transcript surface the result sooner.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Screen Recording Stability:** Crashes, preview issues, shutdown reliability, and recording state sync fixed on macOS.
* **\[Desktop] Smoother Live Cursor Preview:** Mouse cursor smoother during live screen recording previews.
* **\[Desktop] Camera Overlay Position Fix:** Webcam overlays stay correctly positioned in the recorded video.
* **\[Desktop] Long Screen Recording Upload Fix:** Screen recordings with webcam overlay less likely to miss auto-upload after long export times.
* **\[Shared] Key Persistence Fixes:** Sign-in tokens and saved cloud API keys recover more reliably when secure storage is flaky.
* **\[Desktop] Folder Operation Recovery:** Folder moves, renames, and creation behave more reliably if something fails partway through.
This release adds major screen recording capabilities on macOS, expands organization and AI options, and makes onboarding, transcripts, summaries, and navigation much more reliable.
### 🚀 New Features
* **\[Desktop] Screen Recording on macOS:** Record full screen or a single window, with optional mic audio, system audio, and webcam overlay.
* **\[Desktop] Screen Recording Setup Window:** Choose what to record, preview sources live, adjust audio options, and position your camera overlay before you start.
* **\[Desktop] Dedicated Screen Library:** Screen recordings have their own Screen section.
* **\[Desktop] Live Camera Preview:** Floating live camera preview during capture when recording with webcam.
* **\[Desktop] Goal-Based Onboarding:** Setup adapts to your goals — meetings, talk-to-text snippets, or screen recording.
* **\[Desktop] Recording Folders:** Create folders, set a default folder, and move recordings between folders.
* **\[Desktop] Groq AI Provider Support:** Groq available as a cloud AI option for chat, summaries, dictation cleanup, and transcription.
* **\[Desktop] Dictation Finalize Mode:** Pick whether dictation pastes raw transcript immediately or waits for a cleaned-up final version.
* **\[Desktop] Meeting Note Prompt:** Prompt to start taking notes when a meeting starts.
* **\[Desktop] Meeting Trigger Details:** Recordings show why they started (meeting auto-start, dictation trigger).
* **\[Desktop] Mirror Camera Option:** Mirror the webcam overlay in screen recordings.
* **\[iOS] Classic and Retro themes:** iOS theme options with a new theme switcher in Settings.
* **\[iOS] Dedicated playback controls:** Scrub, skip, and playback-speed controls on iOS.
* **\[iOS] Retranscription on iOS:** Existing recordings can be retranscribed from the mobile app.
* **\[iOS] Configurable mic sample rate:** Pick the sample rate used when recording on iOS.
### ✨ Improvements
* **\[Desktop] Smarter Screen Recording Processing:** Auto titles and summaries when usable audio is available.
* **\[Desktop] Better Screen Recording Playback:** Detail pages prioritize the finished video, support inline playback, and still expose the raw camera clip.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Screen Recording Flow:** Starting and stopping returns you to the right screen more consistently.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Dashboard Navigation:** Opening directly to tabs like Recordings is more dependable.
* **\[Shared] Clearer Onboarding:** Refreshed across desktop and iOS — clearer wording, better permission guidance, cleaner layouts, step-by-step progress indicator.
* **\[Desktop] Simpler Permission Requests:** Permission prompts explain required vs. optional, especially for microphone, calendar, camera, and screen recording.
* **\[Desktop] Hosted Workflow Setup Improvements:** BuildBetter workspace setup loads earlier and remembers your selected workspace.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Dictation Speed and Reliability:** Finalization faster, more consistent, and better at preserving cleaned text, source app, and tone history.
* **\[Desktop] Richer Transcript Formatting:** Better preservation of speaker labels, punctuation, timing, confidence, and other metadata.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Transcript Saving:** Live transcripts continuously saved during recording, improving summary accuracy.
* **\[Desktop] Better Summary Accuracy:** Auto-summaries use the most complete transcript available.
* **\[Desktop] Improved "Catch Me Up":** Catch-up summaries focus on the last five minutes and return three short bullets.
* **\[Desktop] Faster AI Settings Refresh:** Changing cloud AI API keys refreshes available models quickly and reliably.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Feedback Reporting:** Feedback and post-call reports include better diagnostics for faster resolution.
* **\[Desktop] Window Style Preference Persistence:** Desktop window style restores reliably between launches.
* **\[Desktop] Smoother Desktop Startup:** More stable startup, fewer visual glitches, more consistent window behavior.
* **\[Desktop] Better Audio Stability During Calls:** Microphone and system audio handling on macOS more stable during device changes.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Meeting Detection:** Fewer false triggers from background activity; more accurate start/stop detection.
* **\[Desktop] Streamlined Recordings Experience:** Recent recordings and navigation more consistent.
* **\[Desktop] Safer Storage Management:** Settings clearer about where recordings save; storage usage reporting more accurate.
* **\[iOS] Cleaner iOS Default Theme:** New iOS installs default to Classic.
* **\[iOS] Major mobile UI overhaul:** Redesigned recording, playback, and settings.
* **\[iOS] Settings rewrite:** Refreshed layout with clearer sections, better copy, new controls.
* **\[iOS] Recording detail polish:** Inline playback, upgraded transcript viewing, easier sharing.
* **\[iOS] Updated on-device intelligence library:** Better accuracy and stability.
* **\[iOS] Richer transcript view:** Better handling of speaker labels, punctuation, and long-running sessions.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **\[Desktop] Faster "No Transcript Found" Handling:** Recordings that never receive a transcript fail sooner.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Screen Recording Startup:** Fixed cases where screen recording appeared stuck, failed to start, or prompted for the wrong permissions.
* **\[Desktop] Improved Screen Recording Stability:** Crashes, corrupted previews, startup failures, unreliable stopping/finalization all fixed.
* **\[Desktop] Camera Overlay Positioning Fixed:** Webcam picture-in-picture overlay on macOS stays in place.
* **\[Desktop] Smoother Cursor Capture:** Mouse movement smoother in macOS screen recordings.
* **\[Desktop] More Reliable Camera Overlay Recording:** Fixed cases where the live camera preview or final exported video could miss the camera feed.
* **\[Desktop] Correct Camera Overlay Layering:** Camera overlay properly appears on top of the screen recording.
* **\[Desktop] Better Long Recording Finalization:** Long screen recordings with camera overlay less likely to fail upload or finish processing late.
* **\[Desktop] System Audio Permission Fix:** Turning off Include system audio properly skips capture and avoids unnecessary prompts.
* **\[Desktop] Unsupported Device Handling:** Devices/macOS versions that don't support screen recording are identified correctly.
* **\[Desktop] Screen Tab Folder View Fix:** Screen recordings remain visible when browsing within a folder.
* **\[Desktop] Recording Routing Fixes:** Fixed cases where recording windows or shortcuts opened the wrong screen.
* **\[Desktop] Summary Refresh Fixes:** Auto-summaries appear reliably in recording details without manual refresh.
* **\[Desktop] Transcript Save/Load Fixes:** Fixed missing, misplaced, incomplete, or wrongly attached transcripts.
* **\[Desktop] Live Transcript Reliability:** Fixed cases where live recordings could end with empty transcripts despite captured speech.
* **\[Desktop] Apple Speech Stability Fixes:** On-device transcription recovers better if it stalls during recording.
* **\[Desktop] Sign-In and API Key Persistence:** Tokens and saved API keys recover reliably when macOS Keychain is flaky.
* **\[Desktop] Window Dragging Restored:** Dashboard title bar can be dragged again without interfering with buttons, links, or search.
* **\[Desktop] Window Style Preference Fix:** Window style no longer unexpectedly switches after upgrading.
* **\[Desktop] Folder Safety Improvements:** Invalid folder names/IDs blocked; folder moves safer mid-save.
* **\[Desktop] Reduced False Meeting Starts:** Webex background activity less likely to trigger accidental prompts.
* **\[iOS] iOS Onboarding Layout Fixes:** Spacing and safe-area issues fixed on iPhones with notches or home indicators.
* **\[iOS] More reliable feedback submission:** iOS feedback batched and submitted more reliably.
* **\[iOS] Mobile capture memory fix:** Memory allocation bug in the mobile capture layer fixed.
* **\[iOS] Live transcript finalization on iOS:** iOS live transcripts preserve captured text more reliably on end.
* **\[Desktop] Dictation Cleanup Fix:** Finalized dictation no longer includes internal system messages in pasted text.
### 🚀 New Features
* **\[Desktop] Recording folders in the sidebar:** Create folders from the sidebar, with a visible `Recordings` folder for everything in the main library, default-folder selection, and folder filtering.
* **\[Desktop] Notion export beta:** Connect Recorder to Notion, choose a default destination, push notes/summaries/transcripts from Recording Detail.
* **\[Desktop] Groq cloud support:** Groq as a cloud provider for AI chat, summarization, snippet cleanup, live transcription, and retranscription.
* **\[Desktop] Meeting-aware recording flow:** Auto-started recordings link to the current calendar event; upcoming meetings open their linked recordings; Recorder can prompt for a fresh recording when meetings overlap.
* **\[Desktop] Meeting relink controls:** Recording Detail can suggest nearby meetings and lets you relink/unlink mis-matched ones.
* **\[Desktop] Take-notes meeting prompt:** Native prompt when a detected meeting starts.
* **\[Desktop] Limited onboarding mode:** Setup continues in reduced-capability mode when permissions or models are still missing.
* **\[Desktop] Custom snippet cleaner instructions:** Give the dictation cleaner extra guidance for your style.
* **\[Desktop] Flexible storage controls:** Choose recording location, set default folders, optionally compress finished local audio.
### ✨ Improvements
* **\[Desktop] Folder management now lives where you use it:** Folder creation pulled out of Settings and into the sidebar.
* **\[Desktop] Better folder settings:** Rename, change save location, optionally move existing recordings.
* **\[Desktop] Faster move-to-folder flow:** Show in Finder and Move to folder combined into one menu.
* **\[Desktop] Better folder filtering and counts:** Browse and search custom folders or main Recordings more reliably.
* **\[Desktop] More flexible Notion defaults:** Remember preferred connection, parent page, and exported sections.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer integrations labeling:** BuildBetter and Notion connections live under `Integrations`.
* **\[Desktop] Richer playback controls:** Scrub, skip back/forward, playback speed changes.
* **\[Desktop] Smarter transcript recovery:** AI chat and transcript actions fall back gracefully when transcript files are missing.
* **\[Desktop] More reliable uploads and feedback flows:** Common media types preserved cleanly; feedback dialogs remember your email.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer AI assistant readiness:** Explains why AI chat is unavailable and points you to the right setup step.
* **\[Desktop] More flexible BuildBetter environment routing:** Desktop auth, uploads, and integrations behave consistently across prod, staging, and local environments.
* **\[Desktop] Better recording provenance details:** Developer Mode shows why a recording or snippet was created.
* **\[Desktop] More control over meeting prompts:** Manage take-notes pop-up from Calendar settings; preview in Developer Mode.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer update guidance:** Update failures from disk-image or translocated paths explained.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer transcription language guidance:** Setup flags English-only Whisper model mismatches and suggests multilingual alternatives.
* **\[Desktop] Faster AI settings refresh after key changes:** Saving/removing a cloud API key refreshes model availability immediately.
* **\[Desktop] Better summary automation organization:** Auto-title and auto-summary controls alongside summary templates.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer snippet browsing:** Long snippet titles and previews wrap cleanly.
* **\[Desktop] Cleaner dictation output:** Cleanup preserves your wording, removes repeated passages, adds natural paragraph breaks.
* **\[Desktop] Smoother live transcript updates:** Long recordings stream transcript updates with less lag and UI churn.
* **\[Shared] More focused catch-up summaries:** Catch-me-up returns three short bullets based on the last five minutes.
* **\[Desktop] More resilient dictation overlays:** Dictation Bar stays compact until speech arrives; Notch recovers reliably if cleanup or stop events delay.
* **\[Desktop] Clearer auto-paste guidance:** Errors explain disk-image, translocated path, or local dev build issues.
* **\[Desktop] More helpful empty states:** Home can start a recording directly when your library is empty.
* **\[Desktop] More reliable macOS packaging:** Cleaner updater archives and more reliable DMGs on newer macOS.
* **\[Desktop] Safer updater artifacts:** Versioned updater bundles reduce cache collisions between releases.
* **\[Shared] Consistent app naming across releases:** macOS keeps `BuildBetter.ai Recorder`, iOS keeps `BB Recorder`.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **\[Desktop] Cleaner recording shutdown timing:** Waits for final audio and transcript output before announcing stop.
* **\[Desktop] Safer folder moves and renames:** Rolls back safely if a file move fails partway through.
* **\[Desktop] More reliable folder creation:** Folder creation, library counts, and default-folder handling more consistent.
* **\[Desktop] More reliable Notion environment handling:** Notion export follows the BuildBetter environment of your sign-in.
* **\[Desktop] Fewer updater install failures:** Update archives strip problematic macOS metadata files.
* **\[Desktop] More robust build environment checks:** Local build scripts catch missing Xcode toolchain earlier.
* **\[Desktop] Safer transcription language validation:** Unsupported codes rejected earlier with clearer errors.
* **\[Desktop] Fewer accidental dictation hotkey triggers:** Fn, Globe, and other modifier hotkeys less likely to start/stop dictation unexpectedly.
* **\[Desktop] Fewer false-positive meeting auto-starts:** Webex background activity less likely to mimic an active meeting.
* **\[Desktop] Safer recording state transitions:** Guards against duplicate starts; keeps more trailing transcript text before finalizing.
* **\[Desktop] Better recovery when capture ends unexpectedly:** Stops and cleans up reliably if audio sources disconnect or transcript streams stall.
* **\[Desktop] More reliable floating window behavior:** Manually opened windows stay visible until dismissed.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Snippets mode for dictation:** Capture quick dictation clips, then browse and copy them from the Snippets view.
* **New Dictation Bar and notch controls:** Faster start/stop with dedicated dictation surfaces.
* **Dictation & Snippets settings page:** Configure hotkeys, auto-paste, always-visible bar, and snippet display preferences in one place.
* **Template-based auto-summarize defaults:** Choose built-in or custom templates as the default auto-summary format.
* **Snippet cleaner provider/model selection:** Pick how cleanup runs before paste — local models, Apple Foundation, OpenAI, Anthropic, BuildBetter, or Ollama. Includes GPT-5 Nano.
* **Parakeet transcription option:** New transcription engine with guided model management.
* **BuildBetter cloud support:** Use BuildBetter-hosted AI for transcription and chat when signed in.
* **Enhanced Notes tab:** Dedicated enhanced-notes view in recording detail.
* **Built-in diagnostics export:** Generate diagnostics and open logs from settings.
### ✨ Improvements
* **More reliable meeting auto-detection:** Better signal handling for start/stop.
* **Smoother dictation hotkey behavior:** More consistent hold, tap, and double-tap flows.
* **Cleaner transcript finalization:** Dictation waits more intelligently for trailing words before cleanup and paste.
* **Faster dictation stop-to-paste flow:** Reduced stop tail and settle windows in Notch and Dictation Bar modes.
* **More stable notch transcript layout:** Less resize jitter and visual flicker while dictating.
* **Clearer setup guidance:** AI setup and settings explain readiness, permissions, and model choices.
* **Consistent templates across settings and recordings:** Same catalog powers template settings, default summary, and recording summaries.
* **Better update visibility:** Install/restart actions and update state clearer.
* **Faster recovery under load:** Transcription streams handle temporary queue pressure better.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **Reduced repeated macOS permission prompts:** Accessibility prompts less repetitive.
* **Action items render correctly as lists:** Bulleted action items format as expected.
* **Safer stop handling:** Stopping when nothing is recording no longer causes confusing states.
* **Cleaner cleanup fallback behavior:** Dictation cleanup rejects meta/model chatter and falls back to cleaned raw text.
* **No duplicate dictation surfaces in notch mode:** Prevents overlapping dictation UI.
* **Clearer sign-in/environment errors:** Auth errors easier to read when environment settings don't match.
* **Meeting auto-start defaults tuned for reliability:** Existing installs use more reliable defaults.
* **Safe fallback when deleting a default template:** Switches safely to Quick Summary if a default template is removed.
* **Launch-at-login toggle stability:** Setting persists correctly.
* **No stale restart prompts:** Restart/update prompts don't appear when already up to date.
* **Calendar deselect-all now sticks:** Empty selections preserved.
* **Auto-stop no longer ends manual recordings/snippets:** Auto-stop applies only where expected.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Comprehensive Transcription Readiness Check:** New `get_transcription_readiness` command shows exactly what's working and what needs setup — checks macOS Speech Recognition (availability + permission), Whisper (installed + active model), and Deepgram (API key). Returns a clear `isReady` boolean with specific `actionNeeded` guidance.
* **Parakeet Transcription Backend** (feature-gated): NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B via sherpa-onnx — no Python dependency, \~1.93% word error rate, single-model caching (\~3 GB per model).
* **Download Progress Bars:** Model downloads in onboarding show real progress bars with percentage.
### ✨ Improvements
* **Transcription Status Cards:** AI Settings and Setup Wizard show clear status cards — green for ready, amber for needs-setup, gray for unavailable.
* **Enhanced Debug Panel:** "Check Permissions" tests all 6 TCC permissions (Microphone, Screen Recording, Accessibility, Automation/AppleEvents, Calendar, Speech Recognition) and shows transcription readiness.
* **Reset Permissions Updated:** Resets all 6 TCC permissions including Calendar, AppleEvents, SpeechRecognition.
* **Prominent Backend Logging:** Clear `========` banner logs when transcription starts showing which backend is in use.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **Fixed Apple Speech duplicate transcriptions:** Switched from string prefix matching (`lastEmittedText`) to segment-based tracking (`lastEmittedSegmentCount`) — only new segments emitted.
* **Fixed memory leak / infinite tick logs:** WebSocket transcription server loop now exits properly via explicit `None` handling in `tokio::select!`.
* **Fixed CSS @keyframes nesting:** Resolved CSS compilation warnings in classic theme.
### 🔧 Technical
* New `TranscriptionReadiness` and `TranscriptionOptionStatus` types in `commands/apple_intelligence.rs`.
* Segment-based transcription tracking in `AppleIntelligence.swift`.
* Proper `tokio::select!` None handling pattern in `transcription/server.rs`.
* Parakeet module with sherpa-rs `TransducerRecognizer` integration.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Ollama Integration:** Local Ollama models for AI Assistant and Summarization. Auto-detects server at `localhost:11434`, lists all available Ollama models in AI engine dropdowns, available in the onboarding wizard, streaming generation with fallback support.
* **Custom Whisper Model Import:** Import your own `.bin` Whisper models. Copy to app folder or reference external paths. Imported models appear in the dropdown with "(Custom)" badge. GGML files validated before import.
* **NotchBar External Monitor Support:** NotchBar always stays centered on the MacBook's built-in display. Screen observer monitors display configuration changes, uses `CGDisplay.is_builtin()`, auto-repositions when external monitors connect/disconnect.
* **Speaker Diarization** (WIP): Infrastructure for speaker identification in transcripts.
### ✨ Improvements
* **Model Download Validation:** Whisper downloads use a temp `.download` file first, validate file size, auto-detect and re-download corrupted/incomplete files.
* **Better Transcription Error Messages:** Errors include file size for debugging; warns if file is suspiciously small; instructs to delete and re-download.
* **Distil-Whisper Model Priority:** Distil models checked first in discovery (`ggml-distil-small.en.bin`, `ggml-medium-32-2.en.bin`, `ggml-distil-large-v3.bin`).
* **Apple Intelligence Detection:** Clearer messaging — macOS version detection (consumer 15.1+ vs Foundation Models API 26+), "How to verify" expandable guide, "Open System Settings" button.
* **Upload Button Auth Check:** Shows "Login to Upload" when not authenticated; toast directs to Settings.
* **Auth Environment Validation:** Clear error when staging/production are mismatched: "You are logged into staging but trying to use production".
* **Live Changelog Updates:** In-app changelog fetches from server; always up to date regardless of installed app version; falls back to embedded version when offline.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* **Auto-stop now works when meeting ends:** Calendar mode requires activity signals (mic/camera/network) for high confidence — when you leave a meeting, signals stop, confidence drops to 0.20, and auto-stop triggers. Confidence scales by participation: Calendar + mic + camera = 0.99, Calendar only (no signals) = 0.20.
* **Calendar selection now syncs:** Toggles emit events; UpcomingView updates immediately without restart.
* **Fixed app crash on startup:** Screen observer uses correct async runtime (`tauri::async_runtime::spawn`).
* **Whisper model not found:** Model discovery includes all model types with detailed search-path logging.
* **Retro NotchBar stop button overlap:** Removed LED indicator and adjusted position.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Custom Whisper Model Import:** Import your own `.bin` Whisper models. Copy to app folder or reference external paths. Imported models appear in the dropdown with "(Custom)" badge.
* **Ollama Integration:** Ollama models for AI Assistant and Summarization. Auto-detects at `localhost:11434`, lists available models in dropdowns, available in onboarding wizard, streaming with fallback.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* Fix Apple Intelligence not detected on macOS 26 (dylib bundled in `Frameworks/` but code looked in `Resources/`).
* Fix Whisper model import file picker not opening (AppleScript command fix).
* Fix microphone staying active after recording ends on macOS (CPAL stream explicitly paused before drop).
* Fix Whisper transcript overwriting single line instead of growing (`is_final: false` → `true`).
* Fix stop button not responding on recordings page (`isStopping` state reset in finally block).
* Fix "Show Recorder" tray menu not bringing window to front on macOS (added `activateIgnoringOtherApps`).
### ✨ Improvements
* **Apple Intelligence Detection:** macOS version detection between consumer features (15.1+) and Foundation Models API (26+); "How to verify Apple Intelligence" expandable guide; "Open System Settings" button; improved error messaging when API unavailable.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Hide Dock Icon:** New "Menu Bar Only" mode hides the app from Dock and Cmd+Tab — accessible only via the system tray (macOS).
* **Retranscribe Recordings:** Re-transcribe existing recordings using any backend (Whisper, Deepgram, Apple Speech).
* **Calendar Selection:** Choose which calendars appear in Upcoming Meetings with checkboxes.
* **\[iOS] In-App Feedback:** Submit feedback with star ratings directly from the mobile app.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* Fix calendar permission dialog not appearing on macOS 14+ (`requestFullAccessToEventsWithCompletion:`).
* Fix "Invalid Date" display in calendar events (serde camelCase serialization).
* Fix calendar settings button navigating to the wrong tab.
* Fix delete recording button not responding to clicks.
### ✨ Improvements
* Calendar Settings shows selected calendar count and supports select/deselect all.
* System tray menu includes "Toggle Dock Icon" option.
* Added Checkbox UI component for better form controls.
### 📱 Mobile App
* New in-app feedback form with star rating and Slack/API submission.
* Retranscribe recordings via RefreshCw button on detail screen.
* CollapsibleBottomBar styling improvements.
* Recordings and Settings screen refinements.
### 🚀 New Features
* Theme system with Classic and Retro styles.
* Templates tab in Settings with custom summary templates.
* Changelog UI with version history and provider logos.
* Deepgram cloud transcription enhancements.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* Fix theme switching — remove global retro styles from index.css.
* Fix speaker diarization display; add dev mode option for rating popup.
* Fix Deepgram interim transcript handling and consolidate transcript views.
* Fix system audio banner not clearing when audio detected.
* Fix NotchBar expand/move issues on button clicks.
* Fix Deepgram duplicate transcriptions by mixing audio before sending.
* Remove broken latency tracking from live transcription.
### ✨ Improvements
* Desktop components theme-aware with CSS variables.
* Reload LLM and transcription backends when live recording starts.
* Simplify NotchBar by removing expand/quick-actions view.
* Color-code transcript bubbles by speaker.
* Redesign templates UI and add template grid to summary view.
### 🚀 New Features
* Theme selection (Classic / Retro) added to the onboarding wizard.
* Classic theme: clean modern look with purple accents.
* Retro theme: terminal-inspired with amber/green and VT323 font.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* Fix NotchBar buttons staying in active state after click.
* Fix default theme now correctly set to Classic.
* Fix gray-on-gray text in template section badges.
* Fix onboarding showing retro despite Classic being selected.
* Fix CSS `@import` order warnings for Google Fonts.
### ✨ Improvements
* Streamlined onboarding (removed skip button).
* Theme-aware components using CSS variables.
* Centralized theme defaults to `classic`.
### 🚀 New Features
* Apple Speech improvements with better transcription quality.
* Copy transcript to clipboard functionality.
* LLM token cleanup for better context management.
### ✨ Improvements
* Reload transcription backend when settings change.
* Better speaker color coding in transcripts.
### 🚀 New Features
* **Auto-Titles:** AI automatically generates descriptive titles from transcripts.
* **Markdown Notes:** Edit/preview toggle with full GitHub Flavored Markdown support.
* **Cloud API Keys (BYOK):** Bring your own keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Deepgram.
* **Custom Summary Templates:** Create reusable meeting note formats.
* NotchBar shows all 4 quick actions in expanded view.
### 🔧 Technical
* Cloud passthrough commands for OpenAI / Anthropic / Deepgram.
* LLM router supports multiple backends.
* Cleaned up unused legacy components.
* Template storage via plugin-store.
### ✨ Improvements
* Prominent Refresh button on AI Engines settings.
* Toast notifications for model refresh.
* Auto-fallback to Apple Intelligence when active model deleted.
* Refresh button for Apple Intelligence status.
* Apple Intelligence default in onboarding when available.
* Apple Intelligence setup prompt added to the onboarding wizard.
* Apple Intelligence setup guide in AI Settings.
### 🐛 Bug Fixes
* Fix release build hang issue.
### 🔧 Technical
* Bump version and update Apple Intelligence dylib.
### 🚀 New Features
* **AI Engines System:** Separate configuration for different AI providers.
* **LLM Router:** Intelligent routing between local and cloud AI models.
* **Advanced Summarization UI:** Dropdown menu for summary options.
### 🔧 Backend
* Catch-me-up feature (summarize last N minutes).
* Progressive summarization for long transcripts (map-reduce style).
* Enhance notes with transcript context.
* Transcript context limit increased from 8K to 30K chars.
### 🚀 New Features
* All 4 quick actions visible in NotchBar expanded view.
### 🔧 Technical
* Update Apple Intelligence dylib with improvements.
## Earlier Releases
For versions prior to v0.1.42, contact the BuildBetter team — the Recorder repository is private.