Getting the Meetso notetaker admitted

The Meetso notetaker joins a meeting the way an outside guest does: it opens the meeting link and, where the meeting requires it, asks to be let in. This guide is for the person who hosts the meeting and for the admin who manages Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams or Zoom for the organization. It explains what the host sees, which settings affect the request, and what stays outside Meetso's control.

How the notetaker appears

In Google Meet, the notetaker joins from a Google account owned by Meetso. That account is signed in, but it is outside your organization and it is not on your Calendar invite.

In Microsoft Teams and in Zoom, the notetaker joins as a guest named Meetso Notetaker. It is not signed in to Teams or to Zoom.

To join, the notetaker needs three things:

A meeting link that works on its own. For Zoom, that means the full invite link, including the passcode.
A meeting that has started, or a host who arrives while the notetaker is still waiting. It waits for a limited time and then leaves.
Someone who lets it in, when the meeting asks guests to wait.

If a notice says the notetaker could not ask to join, that is usually not caused by a meeting setting, and nothing needs to change on the host's side.

Google Meet

What the host does. When the notetaker asks to join, the host sees a request and admits it. If nobody responds, Google Meet closes the request and the notetaker leaves without recording.

The meeting setting. The host controls who has to ask:

In the meeting, open "Host controls".
Go to "Meeting access".
See which access type is selected. Google describes the three types like this:
- "Open: Anyone with a meeting link can join your meetings. No one has to knock."
- "Trusted: Anyone within the host's organization can join without knocking. Anyone outside the organization, but invited through a Google Calendar event, can join without knocking. Everybody else must knock."
- "Restricted: Anyone invited through a Google Calendar event or from within the meeting by a host can join. Everyone else must knock."

The notetaker is outside your organization and is not on the Calendar event, so under Trusted and Restricted it has to ask to join. Under Open it does not.

"Host must join before anyone else" is a separate host control. When it is on, the notetaker waits until the host has joined. If the host arrives late, the notetaker may leave before it is let in.

If the meeting was locked, nobody new could join, including the notetaker. The host can unlock the meeting, or leave it unlocked until the notetaker has joined.

The admin setting. A Google Workspace admin can manage meeting access settings for the organization's users. Google documents this at Manage meeting access settings for your users.

Source for the wording above: Google Meet help, answer 11989526.

Ask to join is turned off

Each of the two stricter access types has a checkbox that allows people to ask to join:

Under Trusted: "Anyone with the meeting link can ask to join"
Under Restricted: "Anyone can ask to join, including people who dial in"

Google's note on what happens when the box is unchecked:

Tip: This turns off "knocking" for the entire meeting. Anonymous users or third-party bots, like note takers, that attempt to use "Ask to join" are automatically denied access without actions required by the host.

Source: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/11989526

For the host, this means that with the box unchecked the notetaker's request is declined automatically. The host sees no request and gets nothing to admit. The notetaker does not ask again after a decline.

If that was not intended, turn the checkbox on (checked) for the meeting under "Host controls", "Meeting access". With the box checked, the notetaker can ask to join and the host can admit it.

Microsoft Teams

What the host does. The notetaker arrives in the lobby as Meetso Notetaker. The organizer, or a presenter, admits it from the lobby. Who is allowed to admit is set by "Who can admit from lobby", which defaults to "Organizers and presenters".

The meeting setting. The organizer opens the meeting's Meeting options and looks at "Who can bypass the lobby". The values are "Everyone", "People in my org, trusted orgs, and guests", "People in my org and guests", "People in my org", "People who were invited" and "Only organizers and co-organizers".

The notetaker is an anonymous participant, because it is not signed in. For anonymous participants, only "Everyone" skips the lobby. "People who were invited" does not cover it. Microsoft says of participants who are not signed in: "They must wait in the lobby." Some organizations do not allow organizers to choose "Everyone". In that case the notetaker always waits in the lobby and someone has to admit it.

Before the meeting starts. With "Anonymous users and dial-in callers can start a meeting" off, which is the default, anonymous participants wait in the lobby until a verified participant joins. This applies under every lobby setting, including "Everyone". If the meeting starts late, the notetaker may leave before anyone can admit it.

The admin setting. The notetaker can only join if the organization allows anonymous participants:

Open the Teams admin center.
Go to Meetings, then Meeting settings, then Participants.
Make sure "Anonymous users can join a meeting" is turned on. While it is off, the notetaker cannot join any meeting in the organization.

The same setting also exists per policy, under Meetings, then Meeting policies, in the "Meeting join & lobby" section. It has to be on there as well. Microsoft's rule: "If any of these settings are turned off, that type of external participant can't join meetings in your org regardless of lobby settings."

If the meeting was locked, nobody new could join, including the notetaker. The organizer can unlock the meeting, or leave it unlocked until the notetaker has joined.

If a notice says the notetaker's own sign-in expired, that is on Meetso's side. It is not caused by a meeting setting, and nothing needs to change on the host's side.

Source: Microsoft Learn, who can bypass the meeting lobby.

Zoom

What the host does. When the waiting room is on, the notetaker waits there as Meetso Notetaker. The host clicks "Admit" next to its name, or "Admit all". See Zoom's waiting room article.

Before the meeting starts. If the host has not started the meeting, the notetaker sees "Waiting for the host to start this meeting" and waits. If the meeting starts late, the notetaker may leave before it gets in.

The meeting link. The notetaker joins with the link saved on the meeting and nothing else. If the meeting needs a passcode and the link does not include one, the notetaker cannot join. Use the full Zoom invite link, the one that includes the passcode, as the meeting's link.

If the meeting was locked, nobody new could join, including the notetaker. The host can unlock the meeting, or leave it unlocked until the notetaker has joined.

If the notetaker was turned away, the host may have removed it from the waiting room, or the meeting may have ended while it was waiting.

Zoom sometimes turns automated guests away before they reach the waiting room, with the message "Automated bots aren't allowed to join this meeting". That is Zoom's decision, not a meeting setting. Meetso tries again automatically with a new join while the meeting is on. This is not the "Authenticated users only" setting below.

Authenticated users only

The notetaker joins as a guest and is not signed in to Zoom. Zoom's rule for meetings that require authentication: "If a participant tries to join the meeting or webinar and is not signed into Zoom, they are prompted to sign in to join." The notetaker cannot sign in, so it cannot join such a meeting.

The meeting setting. When scheduling the meeting, the host makes sure the "Require authentication to join" checkbox is off (unchecked). While it is on, the notetaker cannot join that meeting.

The admin setting. The account-level setting is "Only authenticated users can join meetings". It is the setting that keeps the notetaker out, so do not turn it on for meetings the notetaker should join:

Open the Zoom account's Settings.
Go to Meeting, then Security.
Find "Only authenticated users can join meetings". For the notetaker to join, the meeting must not require authentication: either this setting is off, or the meeting is scheduled with "Require authentication to join" off (unchecked).

Source: Zoom, requiring authentication to join a meeting or webinar.

What Meetso cannot do. No setting guarantees that the notetaker is admitted. The host can always decline it or leave its request unanswered, and the provider can turn it away for reasons of its own. That is decided on the provider's side, not by a host setting. Meetso cannot admit itself, cannot change a meeting's settings, and cannot join a meeting that has not started or does not take place. After a decline, the notetaker does not ask again.