Shadow vs Otter.ai

Shadow is a macOS app that captures what you say, hear, and see on your screen, then runs custom Skills to turn that context into meeting notes, emails, code, or other outputs. It works in the background during calls and on a keyboard shortcut anywhere else, so you stay focused on the conversation instead of juggling notes and follow-ups.

Unlike bot-based meeting recorders, Shadow never joins your call. It detects meetings automatically, transcribes locally on your Mac, labels speakers in real time, and captures meeting screenshots on its own. When a call ends, you pick a Meeting Skill or write your own prompt to generate notes, BANT breakdowns, action items, or follow-up emails.

Outside meetings, Action Skills let you press a shortcut on any screen. Shadow listens to your voice, reads selected text, and screenshots the active window to run prompts that paste results into your app or show them where you are working. Teams at companies like Vercel, Rippling, and Intercom already use it for faster meeting follow-through and hands-free writing.

Otter.ai is an AI meeting agent that transcribes conversations in real time and turns them into searchable meeting knowledge. It joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls, records from desktop, mobile, or web, and produces live transcripts, summaries, and action items.

Otter AI Chat lets you search across meetings and connected apps to answer questions and draft follow-ups, reports, and content. The platform also supports bot-free desktop recording on Mac and Windows, multilingual transcription, CRM integrations, and an MCP Server that connects meeting knowledge to ChatGPT and Claude.

Otter positions itself as a Conversational Knowledge Engine for sales, education, media, recruiting, and enterprise teams, with apps for iOS, Android, desktop, and a Chrome extension.