Meeting Recording in Slack and Teams: Recordings vs AI Notes
Need a record of what was said? Microsoft Teams builds meeting recording in: one click captures audio, video and screen sharing, saved to OneDrive or SharePoint. Slack takes a different path. Its huddles help page documents no recording feature; instead, paid plans offer AI huddle notes that turn the conversation into a canvas with key takeaways and action items. Here is what each help page documents.
Miles Crawford
The quick version
In a Teams meeting, select More actions, then Record, and confirm: everyone is notified automatically and the processed file lands in the organizer's OneDrive, linked in the meeting chat or channel. In a Slack huddle on a paid plan, click AI notes: Off in the top left corner, then Start AI notes & transcription, and after the huddle a canvas with takeaways, action items and an embedded transcript appears in the huddle thread.
Teams: recording a meeting
One person records at a time, and everyone in the meeting is notified automatically when recording starts. Select More actions, then Record in the meeting controls, specify your spoken language and what you want to record (there is an Audio only option), and confirm. To stop, choose Recording to end both recording and live transcription, or Transcribing to stop only the transcription while recording continues. On mobile, it is More options, then Start recording or Stop recording. Recordings will not capture more than four people's video streams at once, whiteboards and annotations, shared notes, content shared by an app, or videos and animations embedded in PowerPoint Live presentations.
Teams: who can record, storage and expiration
Recording requires an eligible license (Microsoft lists Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5, F3, A1, A3, A5, M365 Business, Business Premium and Business Essentials) and an IT admin who has enabled recording. The organizer and people from the same organization can start and stop; guests, anonymous users and people from other organizations cannot, and the organizer does not need to be present. Recordings are stored in OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint: the processed file saves to the organizer's OneDrive and appears in the meeting chat or channel conversation, with guests and external attendees able to view only if it is explicitly shared. The organizer owns the recording, and by default only organizers and co-organizers can download or delete it. Admin settings control expiration; organizers can change or remove the date from the video player page, and the owner gets an email at expiry with up to 90 days to recover the file from the recycle bin. With Teams Premium or a Copilot license, organizers can restrict who can record to organizers and co-organizers, presenters, or no one.
Teams: edge cases worth knowing
Recording continues even if the person who started it leaves, and stops automatically once everyone has left. If someone forgets to leave, Teams ends and restarts the recording every four hours until the last participant goes. A participant with a compliance recording policy can cause the meeting to be recorded according to that policy even if they are from another organization. Depending on your region, Microsoft notes you may need everyone's permission before recording them.
Slack: AI huddle notes instead of a recording
Slack's capture feature is AI notes, available on paid plans to members but not guests. When AI notes are on, Slack uses the real-time conversation and the messages in the huddle thread to capture key takeaways and action items in a canvas. By default someone in the huddle turns it on: on desktop click AI notes: Off in the top left, then Start AI notes & transcription; on mobile use the three dots icon, then Start AI Notes. Everyone in the huddle is notified when notes are started, stopped or canceled, and anyone in the huddle can stop, resume or delete the transcription at any time. Any member can also set a channel to always start AI notes automatically, from the channel name, then Settings, then Always start AI notes, though owners and admins can restrict the feature.
Slack: what you get afterwards
After the huddle, the notes land as a canvas in the huddle thread with the list of people, topics discussed, action items and more. Anyone in the channel or DM where the huddle happened can view the notes and share them like any canvas. Transcripts are embedded in the notes canvas but do not show up in search results. One hard limit: AI notes are not possible in huddles with external people or guests, which is exactly where a recording would be most sensitive.
Which one for what?
Our read: if you need a replay, Teams is the clear answer: a real video file with playback, sharing controls and expiration management. If you need the decisions, Slack's AI notes are arguably more useful than a recording, because action items land in a shareable canvas nobody has to scrub through. Watch the boundaries on both sides: Teams recording excludes guests and other organizations, and Slack notes refuse external huddles entirely.
What to be careful about
- Both tools notify everyone. Teams notifies all participants when recording starts; Slack notifies the huddle when notes start, stop or are canceled.
- Teams recordings can expire. Admins set the default; check the countdown on the video player page if a recording matters long term.
- Four video streams is the Teams cap. Larger gallery views are not captured, per Microsoft.
- Slack AI notes need a paid plan. Guests cannot use them, and external huddles are excluded.
- Slack transcripts stay out of search. They live inside the notes canvas only, per Slack.
- Consent rules vary by region. Microsoft calls out that you may need everyone's permission before recording.
Sources
Checked October 24, 2026. Features, steps, eligibility and limits follow each product's own help articles. The guidance on when each shines is ours.