Vinyl already captures the meetings that happen on your screen. Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, all handled. Add the mobile app and it captures the ones that happen across a desk, too.
But not every client conversation runs through those channels. There's the phone call a client makes to your office line. The chat at a conference that turned into a proper scoping discussion. The meeting a colleague ran last month on a different notetaker before they moved over to Vinyl. Until now, those sat outside the system, which meant the client's record inside Vinyl was missing a few chapters.
That's what this update fixes. You can now upload an audio file or a transcript from another system straight into Vinyl.
What's new
Drop in a recording or a transcript, and Vinyl treats it like any other meeting. It transcribes the audio, identifies who said what, and produces the same accounting-specific summary and post-meeting actions you'd get from a call it recorded itself. Upload a transcript instead, and Vinyl reads it, summarises it, and pulls out the follow-ups.
The point isn't really the upload button. It's what sits behind it. Vinyl is most useful when it holds the whole conversation history for a client, because that's what everything else feeds on. When you ask Vinyl to find every time a client raised a payroll worry, or you open their record before a call, the answer is only as complete as what you've put in. A recorded phone call that never made it into the system is a gap in that picture. Now you can close it.
Three ways firms are using this
Recorded calls from your VOIP system. Plenty of firms run a VOIP phone system with call recording switched on, and those recordings usually just sit in a folder nobody opens. Export the file, upload it to Vinyl, and that phone call gets the same summary and actions as a video meeting. The quick "can you just check something for me" call becomes a documented conversation with a clear follow-up.
Audio you catch on your phone. You're at a conference and a prospect starts talking through their setup. A client calls your mobile on the way out of the office. If you've recorded it, Vinyl can take it from there.
Transcripts from other notetakers. Maybe you're switching to Vinyl and want your recent history in one place. Maybe a colleague still uses a different tool for their own calls. Export the transcript, bring it in, and the client record stays whole rather than scattered across two systems.
How to record a call on your phone
Recording a phone call used to mean a separate app and a lot of faff. On newer phones it's built in. Here's how to capture the audio so you can upload it.
On iPhone (iOS 18.1 and later)
Start or answer your call as normal.
Tap the call recording button in the top-left of the call screen. On most handsets it looks like a small waveform icon.
Everyone on the call hears a spoken notice that recording has started. This is automatic and you can't switch it off.
Talk as usual. To stop, tap the button again or hang up.
The recording saves to a Call Recordings folder in the Notes app. Open it there, then share or export the audio file so you can upload it to Vinyl.
One thing to check first: call recording isn't available in every country, and it's currently switched off across the EU. Apple's guide on recording and transcribing a call on iPhone lists where it works.
On Android (Google Phone app)
Open the Phone app and tap the three-dot menu, then Settings, then Call recording.
To record specific people, choose Always record under selected numbers and add the contacts you want. To record ad hoc, you'll see a Record button on the call screen during eligible calls.
As with iPhone, both sides hear a notice that recording is on.
After the call, find the file in your recordings and export it, ready to upload.
Support varies by device and carrier here. Non-Pixel phones generally need Android 9 or later, Pixels need a Pixel 6 or newer, and you'll need the latest version of the Phone app. Google's page on using the Phone app to record calls covers the detail.
A quick note on where the mobile app fits. It's built to record in-person meetings, the face-to-face conversations that never touch a video call. It doesn't record your phone calls. Uploading is how those get into Vinyl, which is exactly why we built it.
Wherever you record, check the rules where you are and make sure the other person is happy to be recorded. In a lot of places everyone on the call has to consent.
What it costs
Same model as the rest of Vinyl: you're billed in minutes. Audio uploads are charged by the length of the recording, exactly like a meeting Vinyl records for you. Transcripts are estimated at 150 words per minute, so a 3,000-word transcript counts as roughly 20 minutes of processing. No new plan, no separate add-on. The full breakdown lives on the pricing page.
The bigger picture
We've said before that Vinyl's job is doing the work that follows a meeting, not just taking notes during one. That work is only as good as the conversations it can see. Every call, corridor chat, and inherited transcript you bring in makes the summaries sharper, the searches more complete, and the follow-ups more accurate.
Your best conversations don't all happen on a scheduled Zoom link. Now they can all end up in the same place.
Co-Founder
Table of Contents
Start using Vinyl today
Automatically capture all of your meeting notes
Sync notes & actions to your practice management system
Don't let actions & follow ups fall through the cracks
Start capturing meetings with Vinyl today
"I've been wary of AI notetakers in the past...but Vinyl just gets it. So easy to set up, and the summaries hone in on all the important items. Everything just happens automatically, reducing all the small tasks that quickly add up."
