Fireflies AI Review – AI NoteTaker For Zoom, Google Meet & More

By Harsh Agrawal on March 5, 2025

Tired of missing important details in meetings?

Fireflies ensure you never forget key points from a meeting.

Discover an AI app that will become your notetaking companion for only $10/month. Works with Zoom, Google meet or can transcribe audio and video by direct upload. Read on to discover more.

Fireflies is your AI companion for taking meeting notes on autopilot. This AI tool is ideal for freelancers, solopreneurs, team managers, and even CEOs who do not have an executive assistant.

Fireflies is much more than a meeting note-taking AI app, and we will explore its additional features in a later section of this article.

Why Do You Need an AI Note-Taking App Like Fireflies?

Have you ever been on a long call where so much valuable information was shared, but you couldn't recall all of it? Some of you might try using a manual note-taking app like Remarkable or a classic pen-and-paper diary, but it becomes challenging to do both—take notes and pay full attention to the conversation.

I often struggle with this and have wondered how helpful it would be to have an assistant who could take notes on my behalf and summarize key points and action items from meetings.

Well, this is exactly what apps like Fireflies or Descript offer.

Fireflies is also ideal for solopreneurs who are making good money and frequently need to get on calls with strangers or other freelancers. Having a recorded transcript of the actual call can help prevent future misunderstandings or disputes.

In another scenario, I once worked with someone who turned out to be a bit toxic during a Zoom call. If a third person had been present, the situation might have been different. Fortunately, AI note-taking apps like Fireflies can serve this purpose. These tools automatically join the calls you initiate, and you can customize their name to make it appear as if someone from your team has joined. This provides the comfort of having an another person presence in the meeting.

Note: You can always remove the Fireflies bot from your meeting, just like any other participant.

There are endless benefits to using an AI tool like Fireflies for anyone earning online whose work requires occasional meetings.

Even if you're unsure whether you need it, you can try Fireflies for free in your next meeting and see how useful it is for you.

Take a few minutes to go through this review to understand everything Fireflies can do for you and learn some best practices to make the most out of it.

Features of Fireflies:

🚀 Never Miss Important Details Again – Fireflies doesn't just transcribe meetings; it summarizes key takeaways, action items, and decisions automatically, saving you hours of reviewing long recordings.

🔍 Find Information Instantly – Unlike traditional notes, Fireflies' AI-powered search lets you locate any part of the conversation instantly—just type in a keyword, and it jumps to the exact moment in the transcript.

🎙️ Identify Who Said What – Speaker identification makes it easy to track contributions in team discussions, eliminating confusion over decisions made in meetings.

🤖 Ask AI for Instant Insights – With Fireflies' 'Ask Fred' AI assistant, you can ask questions like:
"What were the key takeaways from this meeting?" or "Summarize John's points on marketing strategy." The AI does the work for you.

💼 Seamless Integration – Fireflies connects effortlessly with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and even Slack, Notion, and Trello, ensuring your meeting insights are available where you need them.

🎯 Reduce Meeting Fatigue – Instead of attending every call, review AI-generated summaries and action items in minutes, so you can focus on deep work instead of endless meetings.

How to start using Fireflies AI?

Getting started with Fireflies is easy, but it is a good idea to give a focus 10-15 minute time to get used to it so that you could make most out of it.

Sign up for an account on Fireflies
Either connect with your Zoom account or upload an existing audio or video file to transcribe existing files
Based on your settings, it can automatically join meetings or can be invited annually using an email.
If you choose to upload a file manually, Once you upload the file, it will automatically transcribe it and also provide you the summary.

There are AI apps section which is optimized for various roles in an organization. For example, HR, Marketing and so on. What these apps will do is, it will provide summary tailored to specific department.

Note: An app in Fireflies also let you create blog post from the podcast.

Here is a list of some of the top apps supported by Fireflies

Most annoying part of Fireflies AI?

Even though I don't mind $10/month for this app, as it offers many great feature, but there is always room for improvement. When Fireflies bot joins your meeting, the name is very boring. Something like Fireflies AI note taker.

Won't it be cool to have something like "Harsh's executive assistant" and it is possible, but the process is tedious and cost a little.

We would be paying about $5/month for custom bot name, and we need to fill a form to do so. I understand that it is an add-on, but they could do a better job in making it more automated.

Pricing:

Fireflies offers multiple plans, including you can try higher level plans under free trial. That is a great way to test this AI notetaking app before committing for long term.

Top Alternatives to Fireflies:

If you're looking for top alternatives to Fireflies, here are three solid options that offer similar AI-powered meeting transcription, note-taking, and collaboration features:

1. Otter.ai – Best for Real-Time Transcription & Collaboration

Why It's a Great Alternative:

Real-Time Transcription & Captioning: Unlike Fireflies, Otter.ai provides live captions during meetings, making it great for accessibility and real-time comprehension.
Automated Speaker Identification: Helps differentiate voices in conversations for clear attribution.
Integration with Zoom & Google Meet: It can join meetings automatically and transcribe discussions just like Fireflies.
Collaboration Features: Users can highlight important points, comment on transcripts, and share meeting notes easily.
Mobile & Web Access: Otter has one of the best mobile-friendly apps for taking AI-generated notes on the go.

Where Otter Excels Over Fireflies:

Better real-time transcription accuracy
Live captions during meetings
More intuitive collaboration tools

🚀 Best For: Professionals, journalists, and students who need real-time AI note-taking & live transcription for meetings, lectures, or interviews.

2. Descript – Best for Podcasters, Video Editors & Content Creators

Why It's a Great Alternative:

AI-Powered Meeting Notes + Audio/Video Editing: Unlike Fireflies, Descript is not just a meeting transcription tool—it also offers video editing, screen recording, and podcast editing features.
AI Voice Cloning: Helps recreate missing audio and clean up recordings with AI-enhanced voiceovers.
Overdub Feature: Fix audio mistakes by simply typing in corrections (great for podcasters).
Multi-Track Editing: If you need both transcription and content editing (audio/video), Descript is a powerhouse.
Cloud Collaboration: Easily share and edit recordings with a team.

Where Descript Excels Over Fireflies:

Best for content creators and podcasters
Powerful audio & video editing capabilities
AI voice cloning & overdubbing for fixing mistakes

🚀 Best For: Podcasters, YouTubers, video editors, and content creators who need transcription plus media editing tools.

3. Avoma – Best for Sales Teams & Customer-Facing Role

Why It's a Great Alternative:

AI-Generated Meeting Insights for Sales Calls: Avoma automatically summarizes key points from sales and client meetings, making follow-ups easier.
CRM Integration (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive): Fireflies integrates with CRMs too, but Avoma is more tailored to sales and customer success teams.
Pre-Call Agenda & Post-Call Insights: Helps teams prepare before meetings and auto-generates insights afterward.
Conversation Intelligence: Identifies trends in sales calls, customer feedback, and common objections.
Customizable AI Summaries: Helps extract key decisions, follow-up tasks, and deal progress.

Where Avoma Excels Over Fireflies:

Better AI-driven insights for sales teams
Deep CRM integrations for tracking deals
Pre-call planning + post-call insights

🚀 Best For: Sales professionals, customer success managers, and teams who want AI-powered sales insights & CRM automation.

Which One Should You Choose?

💼 Business Meetings & Collaboration: → Fireflies or Otter.ai
🎙️ Podcasters & Content Creators: → Descript
📈 Sales & Customer Success Teams: → Avoma

If you're just looking for AI-powered meeting transcription & note-taking, Fireflies and Otter.ai are the best options. But if you need sales intelligence (Avoma) or content editing tools (Descript), those alternatives might be better suited.

Please let us know which AI note-taking apps you are using and why. It is always good to discover amazing AI apps that could help our productivity and creativity.