Off the Record
Weird Machines · Voice & Language · Productivity
Off the Record is a macOS app from Weird Machines that reshapes your voice in real time to block AI transcription, so people hear you normally and notetakers get nothing usable.
About Off the Record
What Is Off the Record
Off the Record is a menu bar app for macOS that protects what you say in online meetings. A small model on your Mac alters your voice as you speak. Listeners hear the same sentences, but the audio that reaches a speech-to-text engine comes out unusable.
The problem it targets is quieter than a bot joining your call. Plenty of AI notetakers run on the other person's computer, with no participant list entry and no announcement. You can decline a visible bot. You can't decline software you never see. Off the Record gives you a switch instead: leave protection off when transcription is fine, turn it on when it isn't.
Two limits matter before you install it. The app runs on macOS only, so a Windows or Linux caller is out of scope for now. And it protects your voice, not the whole call. If the other side records and a person later types up the notes by hand, nothing stops that.
Getting Started
- Download the macOS build from the official site and open it. The free tier needs no account.
- Grant microphone access when macOS asks, then look for the lock icon in the menu bar.
- Join a call in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any app that uses your microphone. No per-app configuration is required.
- Click the lock before you say something sensitive, and click again to go back on the record.
- Wear headphones for the cleanest result, since speaker audio can leak into the microphone and reduce how much protection survives.
Product Information
A quick look at Off the Record's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- People who sit in confidential meetings all week
- Hiring managers and interview panels
- Privacy-conscious remote workers
Tasks
- Blocking an AI notetaker during a sensitive call
- Protecting a recorded interview or podcast
- Screening out copilot-assisted candidates
Scenarios
- A vendor demo where pricing and roadmap details are discussed
- A press interview where a source speaks freely
- A therapy, medical, or HR conversation held over video
Key features
Real-time voice reshaping
A model running locally adds small amounts of noise at points that speech recognition depends on. The result sounds close to normal to a listener and confusing to a transcription engine. Four widely used speech-to-text systems were tested on the vendor's site, including one live engine, and all returned garbage.
Processing that stays on your Mac
Audio never goes to Weird Machines or to a cloud service. The model runs on the device, which means the protection works offline and the vendor has no recording to store, leak, or hand over. That claim is the reason the app can be used in settings where cloud meeting assistants are banned.
Works with any app that uses your microphone
Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and browser-based calls all pass through the same system input, so there is no plugin and no per-app setup. If an app can hear your microphone, Off the Record can sit in front of it. The same applies to voice memos and local recording tools.
Protection that survives recording
Because the voice is altered before it leaves the machine, a recording carries the same distortion. Someone who records the call and runs it through a transcription service later still gets little usable text. The catch is that the recording also carries the altered voice, so anyone listening back hears the same slight change.
A switch you control mid-sentence
The app lives in the menu bar and toggles with one click. You decide which parts of a conversation are on the record and which are not, without asking the other side to stop a bot or leave the call. The free plan stops at 60 protected minutes a week, which resets each Monday.
File API for developers
The same engine is sold as an API. The protect endpoint accepts an audio file up to 5 minutes long and returns a WAV at the original sample rate, with three strength settings: balanced, strong, and max. A separate detect endpoint checks whether a voice is synthetic and returns a verdict with confidence plus a second-by-second timeline.
Pros and cons
Pros
- No bot joins the call, so the other side sees a normal participant list.
- Voice processing runs on the device, and the vendor never receives the audio.
- Protection stays in the file when a call is recorded, which covers later transcription attempts.
- Pro at $8 a month removes the minute cap and covers up to five Macs.
- The API lets product teams apply the same protection to uploaded audio.
Cons
- macOS only. Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android users have no desktop equivalent yet.
- The voice change is small but audible, and listeners may ask about it.
- The free tier allows 60 protected minutes a week, which runs out fast for daily calls.
- It does not stop a human from taking notes by hand, and it cannot remove a transcript that was already made.
Frequently asked questions
It alters your voice in real time so speech-to-text software can't produce a usable transcript, while people on the call still understand you. The change happens on your Mac before the audio is sent anywhere.
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