How to stop AI note-taker bots from joining your meetings

The bot is yours

This is the most common case. You tried a note taker once, connected your calendar, and now it joins every call with a link in it. Change one setting and it stops.

• Otter. Sign in, open Account Settings → Meetings, and set auto-join to Meetings I manually select. Otter then joins only the calls you switch on by hand. Look through your upcoming meetings too: a meeting you switched on earlier keeps that choice. Otter help: stop Otter Notetaker from joining.
• Read.ai. Open Account Settings → Meeting Recording → Auto-Join Preferences. You can limit Read to meetings you host or to internal meetings, or turn auto-join off. Read.ai help: auto-join options.
• Fireflies. Open Settings and find Auto-join calendar meetings. Choose Only when I invite [email protected], or switch auto-join off. The other choices are all meetings with a web link, only meetings you own, and only meetings with teammates. Fireflies guide: auto-join settings.

If the bot keeps coming back after that, it is almost always a second account you forgot, or a teammate’s calendar that has your meeting in it. Read.ai says the same in its help: turning it off for you does not turn it off for the other people in the call.

You host the meeting

As a host you cannot change someone else’s bot settings. You can decide who gets in. Bots join from outside your company and usually without a signed-in account, so a waiting room catches them.

• Microsoft Teams. Open Meeting options and set Who can bypass the lobby to People in my org, People who were invited, or Only organizers and co-organizers. Anyone joining without a verified account then waits in the lobby, and you simply do not let them in. Microsoft Learn: lobby options.
• Zoom. Turn on the Waiting Room: in the Zoom web portal open Settings → Meeting, and under Security switch on Waiting Room. You can choose that only people outside your account wait. Zoom support: waiting room.
• Google Meet. Turn on Host management (Host controls at the bottom right). With the meeting access set to Trusted or Restricted, people who were not invited must ask to join. Deny names like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai Notetaker or Read.ai. Meet help: host controls and meeting access types.

A bot is already in the call

Remove it like any other participant: open the participant list, find the bot, and choose Remove. Otter describes this for Zoom, Meet and Teams in its own help (remove Otter Notetaker from a meeting). Read.ai also listens to the chat: type Read Stop to make it leave, or Opt Out if you do not want a report saved (Read.ai help).

It is fine to say why. “We don’t use note-taker bots in this call, I’ll send notes after” is enough, and it is kinder than removing someone’s tool without a word.

You are the admin

• Zoom. In the Zoom App Marketplace click Manage → Apps on Account, open the app on the Added Apps tab, go to Manage app, and click Disable in the Disable App section. That blocks it for every user on the account. Zoom support: admin app management.
• Teams. In the Teams admin center, Meetings → Meeting policies, the Meeting join & lobby section has Manage external bots and their access to meetings. The default, When detected, require approval before joining, sends bots that Teams detects to the lobby and marks them. Keep it on. Microsoft notes that some bots may not be detected, so set the lobby rule as well. Microsoft Learn: manage external bots.
• Google Meet. Workspace admins can set the default meeting access for users, so outside guests ask to join unless they were invited. Google Workspace admin help.

Step by step

1. 1If the bot is yours, turn off auto-join. In Otter, Read.ai or Fireflies, open the settings and change auto-join to only meetings you pick, or turn it off.
2. 2If you host, make guests wait. Use the Teams lobby, the Zoom Waiting Room or Google Meet host management, and do not admit names like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai Notetaker.
3. 3If a bot is already in, remove it. Remove it from the participant list. For Read.ai you can also type Read Stop or Opt Out in the meeting chat.
4. 4If you are the admin, block it for everyone. Disable the app in Zoom Admin App Management, and keep bot detection on in the Teams meeting policy.

Keep the notes, lose the bot

Most people do not hate notes. They hate a stranger in the participant list. Trippi Notes takes notes from inside your own browser tab: no extra participant, nothing to admit, no calendar access. You get the transcript with names, a summary with tasks, and a follow-up email. See how it works without a bot.

No bot does not mean secret. Say at the start that you are taking notes; here is what to say and a message to paste.