Captions, Meeting Notes and a Copilot: SlyPilot vs. Live Captions, Otter and the Built-In Meeting Assistants
There are three ways to get help with a meeting today:
There are three ways to get help with a meeting today:
- A bot that joins the call (Otter, Fireflies and others): it records in the cloud and writes notes there.
- The meeting app's own assistant (Copilot in Teams, Zoom's AI Companion): built in, but only for that app, and usually on a paid plan.
- Something on your own PC that hears what your PC plays. Windows has Live Captions; SlyPilot Pro adds meeting notes, live captions in any language and a meeting copilot.
SlyPilot is firmly the third kind: no bot, no meeting account to connect, the audio turned into text on your PC, for any call in any app.
Facts about other products were checked in October 2026 and change often; plans and prices are on their own sites.
📊 Side by Side
| SlyPilot Pro | Windows Live Captions | Meeting bots (Otter, Fireflies …) | Teams Copilot / Zoom AI Companion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works with | Any app or video your PC plays | Any audio | The meeting apps they support | Their own app |
| Joins the call as a participant | No | No | Yes, a bot | No (built in) |
| Where the speech becomes text | On your PC, with your speech engine | On your PC | Their cloud | Their cloud |
| Live captions | Yes, on any monitor, text size and lines as you like | Yes | In their app | In their app |
| Translated captions | Into any language, by your AI model | Into English, on some PCs | Some plans | Some plans |
| A transcript you keep | A plain-text file on your PC (meeting notes, after your consent, with a visible indicator) | No | In their cloud | In their cloud |
| Summary and action items | Your AI model (a small one on your PC is enough) | No | Theirs | Theirs |
| "What did they just ask?" / "Catch me up" | Yes, the meeting copilot | No | Varies | Varies |
| Searchable later | Yes: m in the palette, and Memory | No | In their app | In their app |
| Price | Part of SlyPilot Pro, one-time | Free with Windows | Subscriptions | Paid plans / licences |
🧭 What the Difference Means for You
Nobody sees a bot. Bots announce themselves, some meetings refuse them, and some people are uncomfortable with them. SlyPilot listens to what your PC plays, as your speakers do.
Your words stay on your PC. The sound is turned into text on your PC and dropped. The transcript is a file on your disk. Summaries and the copilot go to the AI model you chose; a model on your PC means nothing leaves it, and a model outside your PC shows you the lines first.
Every app is the same. A Teams call at nine, a Zoom at ten, a customer's Webex at eleven, a recorded webinar in the afternoon: the same captions, the same copilot buttons, the same folder of notes.
You stay polite. The copilot's What did they ask? and Catch me up mean you can admit to nobody that your mind wandered.
⚖️ When Another Tool Is the Better Choice
- Your company already pays for Copilot in Teams and your meetings are all in Teams: its recaps know the meeting's chat and files too.
- You want shared notes for the whole team in the cloud: a meeting bot's service is built for that; SlyPilot's notes are yours, on your PC.
- You only need English captions now and then: Windows Live Captions is free and already there.
- Consent: whatever you use, recording or transcribing other people can need their consent where you live. SlyPilot's meeting notes ask you every time and give you a sentence to tell the others.