đ Permissions: Anyone who can access a Mini can record a session, once your workspace has the feature turned on. Recording is available in a person's Mini, not in the workspace agent. Learn more about roles â
Some of the most important information in your day is spoken, not typed: a home visit, a family meeting, a review with an allied health professional. Recording a session captures that whole conversation, turns it into a transcript, and hands it to the person's Mini so you can go straight to a progress note, a summary, or a letter instead of writing everything up from memory hours later.
It's also the better choice when you have a lot to say on your own. If you'd rather talk through a whole visit than type it up, record it.
Everyone in the room needs to know they're being recorded and agree to it, so Minikai asks you to confirm consent every time you start.
â
â
When to use this
You've got a lot to say and it isn't a quick question. Speaking a long note in one go, like writing up a shift or talking through a whole visit, works better as a recording than as dictation. There's no live text to watch and no message to keep an eye on, you just talk for as long as you need.
You're in a meeting you'd otherwise write up afterwards, like a family review, a support plan meeting, or a case conference.
You're doing an assessment or a home visit and want to stay present with the person instead of taking notes.
More than one person is talking and you want a record of who said what.
The conversation is long and the detail matters, for example a funding review or a complex incident debrief.
Recording a session vs dictation
Both use your microphone, but they suit different jobs. The quick rule: if it's short and you're asking the Mini something, dictate. If you're speaking at length, or other people are speaking too, record the session.
Dictation captures your voice only, shows your words as text while you speak, and gives you a message you edit and send yourself. It suits short asks: a question for the Mini, a quick instruction, a brief note.
Recording a session captures the whole conversation, including everyone else in the room. There's no live text, just a session card with a timer and sound levels, and the transcript is delivered into the chat when you finish. It suits long-form speech: meetings, assessments, visits, and long notes you'd rather speak than type. Recordings can run up to about two hours, and you confirm everyone present has agreed to be recorded.
Dictation is the faster path for "What's changed in Maya's mobility goals this month?" or a two-line note. Once you're talking for more than a minute or two, or anyone else is in the conversation, record the session instead. See Using dictation.
How it works
Open the person's Mini and look in the message area for the sound-wave button, Record session, next to the microphone. On a smaller screen it sits in the + menu. Minikai checks consent, then records in the background while a session card shows how long you've been going. When you finish, the audio is transcribed and arrives in the chat as a Recorded session message, which the Mini reads and responds to with suggested next steps.
The audio is never saved. It's transcribed as it's sent and then it's gone, so the transcript in the chat is the only lasting copy. The recording runs in the background, so the chat stays yours to use while it's going.
Before you start: check your microphone
Minikai records through your device's default microphone, the one your device already uses for calls. There's no microphone picker in Minikai, so anything you want to change is changed on the device, before you start.
Choose the right microphone first. If you want to use a headset, a conference speaker, or an external microphone, select it in your device's sound settings before you open the chat. Worth knowing: if you have Bluetooth earbuds connected, they're usually the default, and they pick up you far better than the rest of the room. For a meeting, the device's own microphone sitting in the middle of the table is often the better choice.
Allow access when the browser asks. The first time you record, your browser asks for permission to use the microphone. Select Allow. If you block it, or blocked it previously, recording won't start and you'll see a message asking you to check microphone access. You can undo that from the padlock or microphone icon in the browser's address bar, and on a work laptop your browser may also need microphone permission in the device's own privacy settings.
Check the levels once you've started. The session card shows a moving waveform. If it's flat while people are talking, the sound isn't reaching Minikai. After about 15 seconds of silence the card tells you it can't hear anything, so keep an eye on it in the first moments rather than at the end.
Do a test run on a new setup. In an unfamiliar room, or with a new headset, record yourself for 30 seconds, finish, and read the transcript. It's a minute well spent before an hour-long meeting.
Step 1: Start the recording
Select Record session. Minikai asks "Has everyone consented to being recorded?" before it touches the microphone.
Before you confirm, tell everyone present that the session is being recorded and what it will be used for, and check they agree. That includes the person you support, their family, and any other staff in the room. Select Everyone has consented to begin, or Not yet if you need to ask first.
If you're recording only yourself, for example talking through a visit on your own afterwards, there's nobody to ask. Confirm and carry on.
Step 2: Have the conversation
A session card appears in the top right of the chat with a red dot, a timer, and a moving waveform so you can see your microphone is picking up sound. On a phone you'll see a small recording pill you can tap to open the same controls.
Keep the chat open. The recording lives in this browser tab, so don't close it or navigate away until you've finished. Minikai warns you if you try.
You can keep talking to the Mini while you record. The chat works as normal, so you can ask a question mid-meeting, for example "what were Maya's goals from the last review?", and the Mini answers straight away. The recording keeps running, and your questions and the Mini's answers don't become part of the transcript. If you finish recording while the Mini is still replying, the transcript simply waits its turn and arrives once the reply is done.
If nothing is being picked up, the card tells you it can't hear anything and the timer turns red. Check that the right microphone is selected on your device, that the app has permission to use it, and that nothing is muted, including a hardware mute switch on a headset.
To abandon a recording, select the bin icon. Recording pauses while you decide, and you can choose Keep recording to carry on. Discarding deletes the audio without a transcript and can't be undone.
Step 3: Finish and wait for the transcript
Select Finish recording. The card switches to Transcribing and the timer holds at the length of your recording. A short session takes a few moments, a long one takes longer. Stay on the page while it works.
If transcription fails, the card says so and keeps your audio, so Try again costs you nothing.
Step 4: Review the transcript and pick a next step
The transcript arrives as a Recorded session message in the chat with the length of the recording. Select View transcript to read the full text in the side panel.
Where two or more voices were picked up, the transcript is split into passages labelled Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, with how far into the recording each passage starts. Those labels don't name anyone, and the times are time elapsed, not the time of day.
The Mini reads the transcript and suggests what to do next. From there you can ask it to:
Write a progress note from what was discussed
Summarise the meeting for a handover or a family update
Pull out the actions and follow-ups agreed in the room
Draft a letter or report using the detail from the conversation
â ď¸ Always check the transcript: Transcripts are produced by machine and can have errors, particularly with names, medications, doses, and clinical terms. Read the transcript before you rely on it, and check anything the Mini writes from it, especially before it becomes part of a person's record.
If no speech is picked up at all, Minikai tells you rather than handing the Mini an empty transcript, but the audio is gone once you've discarded it. Watching the waveform for the first few seconds is the only real safeguard.
Tips for a good recording
Put the device where everyone can be heard. A phone or laptop in the middle of the table beats one at your end of it.
A muted headset looks identical to a working one. If you use a headset with a physical mute button, check it before you start. The transcript can't tell you afterwards.
Record on one device only. Two people recording the same meeting gives you two transcripts and twice the review.
Say who's in the room at the start. The transcript numbers the speakers but doesn't name them, so a quick round of introductions makes it far easier to follow later.
Recording yourself on your own? With a single voice the transcript reads as continuous prose, with no speaker labels, which is exactly what you want for a long spoken note.
Reduce background noise where you can. A TV or radio competes with the people you actually want.
Recordings can run up to about two hours. For anything longer, finish and start a new session.
Not in English? Recorded sessions use the speech language set on your profile, the same one dictation uses. See Setting your dictation and transcription language.
âšď¸ Good to know: Nothing is added to the person's timeline automatically. The transcript sits in the chat until you ask the Mini to create a record, and you review that record before it's saved. The transcript stays with the message, so it's still there when you come back to the chat later or open it on another device.
Need help?
If the Record session button isn't there, your workspace may not have it turned on yet. Message us through the Help Desk in the app and we'll sort it out, and we're happy to help with anything else about recorded sessions.