Fathom Desktop App: Mac vs Windows, Chrome Extension and iPhone

Fathom comes as a desktop app for macOS and Windows, a Chrome extension, an iPhone app and a web app, and each one has a narrower job than its name suggests. The headline difference is the operating system. Bot-free capture, where no Notetaker joins the call, is a beta that runs only in the new Mac app (Fathom 3.0) and needs macOS 14.2 or newer, the latest desktop app and a place in the phased rollout.^[1] Windows users get the previous version, which records through the visible bot. Pick the Mac app if you want calls captured without a visible bot (you still need participants' consent); on Windows, plan around the bot.

Four apps, one account: what each piece handles

All four pieces sign into the same Fathom account and feed the same meeting library, so the question is less which one to install than which ones your setup needs. A Mac user on Google Meet who also runs in-person client sessions might use three of them. A Windows user on Zoom usually needs only the desktop app and the browser. The table maps each piece to its job, using what Fathom's help center and pricing page say as of November 2026.

Cost is not a gate here. The desktop apps, the bot, the bot-free beta and the iOS app are all available on the Free plan, which is $0 with no time limit. Two touches that change what attendees see start at Premium, at $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 per user per month billed monthly: renaming the bot and hiding the in-meeting banner. Android is the gap. Fathom has no Android app, and its help center warns that apps impersonating Fathom have appeared in both the App Store and Google Play.

Step 1: download the app and sign in

The macOS and Windows installers come from Fathom's own download links (fathom.video/download/macos and fathom.video/download/win). There is no Fathom password to create. You sign in with a Google or Microsoft account, and Enterprise teams can switch to SAML single sign-on later. Fathom adds one gate for new accounts on a consumer address such as gmail.com: a Zoom, Meet or Teams meeting must already be scheduled on the calendar within the next seven days.

On a Mac, grant the permissions before the first call, not during it. Fathom needs Screen and System Audio Recording plus a separate System Audio Recording Only permission in macOS settings. On Windows, the app lives in the System Tray at the bottom-right of the screen, and Windows Search finds it if the icon is hidden. The move to version 3.0 happens inside the desktop app itself. No email announces it. Windows users and anyone recording in an unsupported language simply see no upgrade banner, and Fathom keeps working the old way.

Step 2: connect a calendar and set auto-record rules

Fathom needs a Google or Outlook calendar, and it reads only the primary one. Secondary calendars are ignored. It treats a calendar event as a meeting when the event has at least one attendee and a Zoom, Teams or Meet link. For Google Meet and Teams, that link must sit in the event's location field rather than buried in the description. Calendly bookings created with default settings can show up as impromptu meetings, which matters for anyone booking sales calls through it.

The auto-record setting has four choices: All Meetings, External Meetings, Internal Meetings or No Meetings, where every recording starts by hand. A meeting counts as external when at least one participant uses an email domain outside your organization. On team plans, admins can set auto-capture to On, Off or Optional separately for external, internal and unscheduled meetings, and members can still capture by hand when it is Off. Auto-share deserves a look on the same screen: when switched on, it sends the recording or summary to every invitee, even absentees, and on Free and individual plans the link defaults to anyone who has it; our guide to removing Fathom covers those settings.

Step 3: choose a capture mode for each meeting

The new Mac app detects meetings on its own and offers four modes per call. Capture Off skips the meeting. Transcript Only is bot-free and saves no recording, just the transcript and AI summary. Audio Only is also bot-free and keeps the audio, stored locally, without video. Audio and Video sends the Notetaker bot. A bot-free video option sits beside these as a limited beta that Fathom says it opens to more users daily. You set a default, then override it for a single upcoming meeting from the menu-bar tray, or press Capture Now for a call already running.

The mode decides what you can do afterward. Choose deliberately. A Transcript Only meeting has nothing to play back, clip or download, so pick it for calls where the words matter more than faces. Version 3.0 shows a live summary that updates during the call and a private scratch pad. Be careful with @mentions there: tagging an outside person by email gives them access to the call. Bot-free capture covers 20 languages; our Fathom transcription guide explains how that compares with transcripts captured by the bot.

Windows works differently. In the previous version you add Fathom to an unscheduled call by pasting its link into Add to Meeting, and summaries arrive only after the call is processed. That version keeps two settings the Mac beta lacks: Invisible when Screen Sharing and Real-Time Coaching, which flags a monologue after 90 seconds. Windows bot-free recording exists only as a limited Microsoft Teams alpha (October 2026).

Google Meet, Teams, Slack Huddles and the iPhone

Google Meet is where the Chrome extension earns its place. Windows users can skip it. The bot works on Meet from both macOS and Windows on every plan, but bot-free Meet capture is Mac only, and bot-free video additionally needs the Fathom Chrome extension.^[2] If the extension is not connected when the call starts with bot-free video and auto-capture on, Fathom falls back to whatever you set: sending the bot or capturing audio. Chromebooks and Linux machines cannot record at all. Microsoft Teams calls are recorded by the bot, which joins as an anonymous guest and may wait in the lobby; our Meet and Teams guide walks through those admin settings.

Slack Huddles never get a bot. The Mac app captures them bot-free, private Huddles included, but it does not spot them on its own. You start capture from the tray icon or the in-meeting panel, unless you switch on auto-capture of unscheduled Huddles under Settings, then Video Conferencing. Huddle capture is part of the bot-free rollout, so it may not appear until your Mac is upgraded. Huddles use Transcript Only, Audio Only or Audio and Video, all without a bot, and video depends on what Slack makes available to the app.

The iPhone app, listed as Fathom AI Notetaker by Fathom Video, is for conversations in a room. It records in-person meetings through the phone's microphone and turns them into a recording, transcript and summary; the app is available on every plan, while AI action items need Premium or higher.^[3] At launch it cannot record phone calls, search meetings, run Ask Fathom or record offline, so a dead signal means no capture. It can, however, send the bot to scheduled virtual calls. It is unavailable in China and sanctioned regions.

Fixing a meeting Fathom missed

Most missed recordings trace back to settings, not bugs. Start with the help center's checklist for empty transcripts. If auto-capture was off and nobody pressed capture, Fathom has nothing to transcribe, and a recording with no audio cannot yield a transcript either.^[4] On a Mac, confirm that both audio permissions are still granted. Zoom users on a Mac should make sure Zoom is not using ZoomAudioDevice as its microphone. Bot-free Zoom video also needs the call joined from the Zoom desktop app; a browser tab only works with the bot.

When the bot never shows up, the cause is usually the meeting itself. Fathom joins one meeting at a time, and it records only when you are on the call too. The bot cannot enter Zoom webinars, registration-only calls, meetings with more than 250 participants or calls where IT blocks it. Since March 2026, users who are not on the new version must connect their Zoom account for Fathom to join Zoom calls. Revoking Fathom's access in Google or Outlook disables the account until a calendar is reconnected. Removal is simpler. Uninstalling does not delete your recordings, and the full steps for each platform, plus stopping the bot, are in how to remove Fathom.

The bottom line

Install the desktop app first, and let your operating system set expectations. On macOS 14.2 or newer, the new app gives you bot-free capture of Zoom, Meet and Slack Huddles in beta, with Transcript Only for calls you would rather not record. On Windows, you are running the bot-based version until Fathom ships the new one there. Add the Chrome extension only if you want bot-free Meet video, the iPhone app only for in-person meetings, and skip the hunt for an Android build.