Shiyin
A meeting-notes app for your Mac
Record, transcribe and write up meetings, all on your Mac.
Every note has a timestamp: click it to hear what was actually said.
Read the transcript while you meet
Click Record and the transcript appears a few seconds after people speak. For online meetings, set the source to “Microphone + computer audio” and the other side of Zoom, Meet or Teams is recorded too, with no bot joining your call.
Take notes on the right: each new line is stamped with the recording time. Click Bookmark at important moments. Both are treated as key points when the notes are written.
When you stop, your Mac transcribes it properly
After you stop, Shiyin transcribes the recording again on your Mac. It’s more accurate than the live transcript, and it tells the speakers apart. Rename “Speaker 1” once and the whole meeting follows.
English and Chinese meetings use Breeze ASR 25, which is tuned for Taiwanese Mandarin mixed with English; Japanese meetings use Whisper. Add product names and people to the glossary and transcription takes them into account.
Meeting notes that ask when they’re unsure
When transcription finishes, the meeting is written up as a summary, decisions, action items and open questions. Each item has a timestamp: if something looks wrong, click it and listen from that point.
Names, terms, owners and due dates the summarizer isn’t sure about are listed under “To confirm”. Answer them and the notes are revised. Words in the transcript that were probably misheard are marked too, and nothing changes until you click Accept.
Templates: General meeting, One-on-one, Interview, Lecture / talk, Brainstorm, or your own. You can edit the notes directly, and every change is versioned.
Your recordings stay on your Mac
Transcription and speaker identification run locally and don’t need the internet. Only when the notes are written is text sent to the summarizer you choose.
Stays on your Mac
- Recordings
- Transcription and speaker identification
- All your meetings and notes
Sent to the summarizer you choose
- The transcript text
- Your notes and glossary
- Meeting title and date
The summarizer can be Claude Code or Codex, using the Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already have, or the Anthropic or OpenAI API. Or choose “Don’t summarize” and keep just the transcript.
Download
- Version
- 3.3.0What’s new in this version
- System
- macOS 26 or later, Apple Silicon (M1 or later)
- Memory
- 8 GB or more
- Disk space
- About 1.7 GB of transcription models, downloaded on first use, plus about 570 MB for Japanese meetings
- Price
- Free, open source under the MIT License
Opening it the first time:
- Open the DMG and drag Shiyin to Applications.
- macOS blocks Shiyin the first time you open it, because it isn’t notarized by Apple.
- Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
When a new version is out, Shiyin asks you in the app whether to update.
What’s new
3.3.0October 17, 2026
- Meetings can now be in Japanese: the live transcript uses the Japanese recognizer built into macOS, and the final transcription uses Whisper large-v3-turbo (downloaded the first time you transcribe a Japanese meeting, 574 MB)
- Notes, To confirm questions and transcript corrections for Japanese meetings are in Japanese, and all five built-in templates have Japanese versions; exports use Japanese headings and fonts, and meetings are shown with Japanese glyphs
- Language detection: about 10 seconds into a recording, Shiyin works out whether people are speaking Chinese, English or Japanese, switches only when it's confident, and lets you switch back from the recording screen (needs a 60 MB model; turn it off in Settings → Recording)
- Fixed: after switching meetings, Move to Trash in the More menu could delete the previous meeting
- Fixed: changing the template or meeting language could bring back the old version of notes you had just saved; switching tabs while editing meeting notes now saves your edits instead of discarding them
- Delete Permanently and deleting a model now ask first; if a model download is interrupted, you can resume it from the meeting page
3.2.1October 17, 2026
- Fixed a crash when clicking Done after editing meeting notes (a 3.2.0 bug; thanks for the report)
Questions
Does it cost anything?
Shiyin is free. Meeting notes are written with your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API credit. Choose “Don’t summarize” and you get just the transcript, at no cost.
Does it need the internet?
Recording, transcription and speaker identification don’t. Downloading the transcription models the first time and writing the notes do.
Which languages does it support?
The interface is in English and Traditional Chinese. Meetings can be in English, Chinese or Japanese, and Shiyin detects which after you start recording.
Can it transcribe a recording I already have?
Yes. Drag the audio or video file into the window and it’s transcribed. You can also import srt, vtt or txt transcripts.
Is there a Windows or phone version?
No, Shiyin is Mac only.