Parafoil

Guidebook

Bringing in your meetings

Parafoil reads the meetings you bring to it, and nothing else. You can use more than one source, and you can change your mind at any time in Settings > Integrations and Settings > Meetings.

The Parafoil app for Mac

The app analyzes new meetings from your own Mac. There's no bot in the call, and it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack huddles and meetings in your browser.

  • Get it: choose Download for Mac during setup or on your dashboard, then open the app and sign in with the same account. On a phone or a Windows computer, choose Send Parafoil to My Email and open the email on your Mac.
  • In a meeting: when a meeting starts, Parafoil asks first, and you can choose Don't Analyze. From the menu bar you can Pause Analyzing Now, Stop Analyzing, or Stop Analyzing and Discard This Meeting.
  • Windows: a Windows app is coming soon. Until then you can bring meetings from Zoom, Fathom, Google Meet or a transcript file.

The app analyzes meetings from now on. To get a read from meetings you've already had, use one of the sources below as well.

Zoom

Parafoil brings in meetings you hosted on Zoom that were saved to the cloud with an audio transcript. Cloud recording is part of Zoom's paid plans, so a free Zoom account has no transcripts to share.

  • Connect it: choose Connect and Bring Them In during setup, or Sign in with Zoom in Settings > Integrations. By connecting, you confirm the people in these meetings know you use Parafoil to analyze them. Zoom asks you to allow Parafoil, then sends you back.
  • Choose meetings: Parafoil lists your 10 most recent meetings with transcripts from the last 30 days. Untick any you'd rather keep out, then choose Bring In These (the button shows how many). A meeting you untick is never brought in. These don't use your free meetings.
  • New meetings: once you've chosen, new meetings come in automatically, about once an hour. Turn this off any time with Bring in new meetings automatically in Settings > Integrations, or choose Sync now to check straight away.
  • Disconnect: choose Disconnect in Settings > Integrations, and Parafoil stops reading your Zoom meetings. Tick the box if you also want to delete the meetings it brought in, with their transcripts and everything Parafoil found in them.
  • Uninstall: you can also remove Parafoil in Zoom's App Marketplace, under Manage > Added Apps. That disconnects it in Parafoil too. Meetings already in Parafoil stay until you delete them in Settings > Meetings.

Parafoil works out which speaker is you from your Zoom name. If it can't tell for a meeting, it leaves that meeting out rather than guess.

Fathom

If Fathom already takes notes in your meetings, Parafoil can read its transcripts.

  • Connect it: choose Connect Fathom during setup, or Sign in with Fathom in Settings > Integrations.
  • Choose meetings, new meetings and disconnecting work the same way as Zoom, above.

Google Meet

Google Meet saves transcripts as Google Docs in the organizer's Drive, in a folder called Meet Recordings. During setup, choose Upload My Meet Transcripts, then Choose From Google Meet. Google's file picker opens, and you pick the transcripts you want.

Parafoil sees only the Docs you pick, and nothing else in your Drive. Its access ends as soon as those files are read.

You can also download a Meet transcript yourself (in the Doc, File > Download > Plain text) and upload it as below.

Upload a transcript

You can upload a transcript file from most meeting tools, or paste one in. Choose Upload a Transcript during setup, or Import a Transcript in Settings > Meetings.

Parafoil reads:

  • WebVTT (.vtt) and SRT (.srt) caption files, such as a Teams or Zoom transcript download
  • JSON exports from Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola
  • Plain text (.txt, or pasted), with each line starting with the speaker's name, like "Jordan: Thanks for making time"

Some tips by tool:

  • Otter, Fireflies, Fathom: export the transcript with speaker names included.
  • Microsoft Teams: open the meeting's transcript and download it as a .vtt file.
  • Google Meet: see above.
  • Granola: open the meeting, copy the transcript with speaker tags on, choose Paste a Transcript and paste it in.

If Parafoil can't tell which speaker is you, it asks Which of these is you? and you pick.

The transcript needs at least two speakers with their names on each line. If it can't be read, Parafoil says why and the meeting doesn't use a free meeting.

Which meetings count

Your first 5 new meetings are free, from any source. Up to 20 meetings from before you signed up are analyzed without using them, and so is the first import from Zoom or Fathom. A meeting Parafoil can't analyze doesn't count. More in Free meetings and billing.