Recording and summaries

If your coffee chat is an audio call on KoffeeChat, you can record it, but only if you both agree. Nothing is recorded unless you choose to, and saying no changes nothing else about your call.

Recording a call

1. 1Step 1: On the call page, switch on Record and summarise this call before you join, or press Record and summarise during the call. First you both see what is recorded, why, who handles it and how long it's kept.
2. 2Step 2: The other person sees Ada would like to record this call (with your name) and chooses Agree or Not now. A request they don't answer lapses after 2 minutes. After Not now you can ask again in a couple of minutes, and they can ask you at any time.
3. 3Step 3: Once you've both agreed, recording starts when you're both in the call. You both see a Recording badge with a red dot, and your browser tab's title starts with Recording.

What is recorded

• Each of your browsers records only its own microphone, so it's always clear who said what. While you're muted, it records silence.
• Recording pauses while one of you is out of the call, and carries on when you're both back.
• If your browser loses its connection for a moment, the badge says Recording interrupted, trying again until it picks up again. Nothing is recorded in that gap.
• Some browsers, such as the ones built into a few apps, can't record. You'll see Your browser can't record. The call still works. The other person is told too, and the call simply isn't recorded.
• LiveKit, which carries the call's audio, never records it. Recordings are made in your own browsers and kept in KoffeeChat's private storage.

AI summaries

AI summaries are on unless the shepherd switches them off. When they're on, a few minutes after the call you both get a transcript, a summary, key takeaways and next steps for each of you. OpenAI writes them for us and doesn't use your call to train its models. Before anyone agrees you both see AI summary: on (or off) and who set it, on the call page before you join and in the request to record during the call. If the shepherd changes it while one of you is waiting for an answer, the request is cancelled and either of you can ask again.

Shepherds: switch it in Settings → Calls (AI summaries of recorded calls). With it off, a recorded call keeps the audio only, for you both to play back and download, and nothing is sent to OpenAI. The setting at the moment a recording starts is the one that counts for that call.

After the call

• You both get a notification, This call was recorded, and when the summary is ready, Your call summary is ready. Notifications never include what was said.
• You both get an email too, with the summary, key takeaways and your own next steps (never the transcript or the audio), and ideas for what to do next: another coffee chat, a growth plan and companies near you. For calls recorded before 16 October 2026 the email has a link to the summary instead.
• Open the recording from the end of the call, from Summary or Recording on the chat in your list (under More on the chat in Your coffee chats), or from the notification. Only the two of you can open it, and our team doesn't open them.
• The page shows the summary, key takeaways, Your next steps first and then the other person's, and the transcript.
• Recording plays both voices together. Download recording saves both voices in one file. If your browser can't combine them, you get each voice as its own file instead.

How long it's kept

• The audio

  Kept for: 30 days after the call. You can both play it back and download it until then.

• The transcript, summary, takeaways and next steps

  Kept for: 12 months after the call

• The record of who agreed, and when

  Kept for: 6 months after everything else is deleted

Delete for both of us on the summary page deletes the audio, transcript and summary straight away, for both of you, and tells the other person. Deleting your account also deletes the recordings, transcripts and summaries of every call you were part of, for both of you. Deleting your account