Aside
Lives in your menu bar
Start listening from the menu bar or with a hotkey. Aside offers a gentle nudge when your meeting app opens.
Aside for Mac
Your meeting copilot, right in the menu bar.
Aside hears your call, transcribes it on your Mac with a local Whisper model, and streams AI answers into a floating panel beside Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. No bot joins the meeting.
macOS 14.6 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · Notarized by Apple
Built for the Mac
Everything happens on your Mac, beside the call.
Aside lives in the menu bar and stays out of the way until someone asks a question.
Transcribed on your Mac
A local Whisper model turns speech into text on Apple Silicon, with three speed and accuracy tiers. Your audio isn’t uploaded unless you switch on cloud transcription, which is off by default.
Hears both sides
Aside captures your microphone and your Mac’s system audio separately, so every line is tagged You or Them and answers land with the right context.
Answers as the question lands
When someone asks a question, in English or Spanish, a Claude-powered answer streams into the panel. Pick Fast, Smart or Max.
Ask without leaving the call
Press ⌥⌘A to type a question to Aside, or nudge any answer Shorter, Deeper, with an Example, or Simpler. The panel never steals keyboard focus.
Wrap-ups when you want them
Every session is saved on your Mac. Press Wrap up for an overview, key questions, action items and a follow-up email draft.
Getting started
Set up in a couple of minutes.
01
Download and install
Open the DMG and drag Aside into Applications. It’s notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other Mac app.
02
Allow two permissions
On first launch, macOS asks for microphone and system audio access, so Aside can hear both sides of the call.
03
Join your call
Start listening when the meeting begins. Questions get answers beside the call, and the transcript stays in your session history.
Questions about Aside on Mac
Does Aside run on Intel Macs?
No. Aside needs a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14.6 or later. Plan on 8 GB of RAM and about 1 GB of free space for the app and its speech model.
Which meeting apps does it work with?
Anything your Mac can hear: Zoom, Google Meet in any browser, Microsoft Teams, Webex and phone bridges. Aside doesn’t connect to your meeting accounts or your calendar. More on meeting apps.
Can it read my screen too?
Yes. Screen Assist captures your screen with a hotkey and answers what’s on it, like a spreadsheet, an error message or a contract clause. Turn it on in Settings first.
What gets sent to the cloud?
Transcription happens on your Mac. When Aside answers, it sends the question, a short transcript excerpt and what you’ve added to your profile to generate the answer. None of it is stored. The privacy policy has the details.
How do updates work?
Aside checks for updates while it runs and installs them when you quit.
What does it cost?
Thirty days and 40 answers are free, with no card. After that, Pro is $19 a month for 600 answers, and Max is $39 a month for 1,500 answers and the Max model. See the plans.