In this article, we will discuss what a Zoom bot is, how companies typically use them, and how you build one for your own product. We’ll go through API solutions for meeting bots as well as how to build one from scratch.
Table of Contents
What is a Zoom Meeting Bot?
If you use Zoom, you’ve probably encountered a Zoom bot. These bots, also known as "Meeting bots," appear as participants in Zoom meetings and occupy a tile like any other attendee. They are often named “Meeting Notetaker,” “AI Notetaker,” or “Meeting Copilot.”
You can think of Zoom bots as a data pipe between your app and Zoom.
Zoom bots are able to ingest data from Zoom meetings, such as video and audio streams, transcripts, metadata, chat messages, and more, so you can use in your app.
Zoom bots can also output data into the meeting by playing audio, displaying video, or sending messages in the Zoom chat.
Many people think that Zoom provides bots as a product or feature, but this is not true. Zoom bots are actually an integration method that you need to build yourself. For example, if you want to create a tool that summarizes Zoom meeting discussions, you would first need to build a bot that can join the meeting and gather the necessary data.
Companies like Grain.com, Otter.ai, and Fireflies.ai, are examples of companies that have built their own bots to access Zoom meeting data.
Zoom Bots Compared to other Zoom Integration Methods
Zoom bots are the most popular integration method with Zoom because they capture the most data with minimal limitations.
Zoom Bots Work on Any Account Configuration
Zoom bots can be used on any Zoom plan, including the free plan. Additionally, users don’t need to install anything on their Zoom account to use the bot, and users don’t even need to be the host of the meeting.
Zoom Bots can Access Raw Data Access from Zoom
Zoom bots can access a ton of data from Zoom, including:
Virtually anything you observe in the meeting as a participant can be retrieved by a Zoom bot.
Zoom Bots can Output Data into Zoom
Zoom bots can also output data into a Zoom meeting. They can:
This functionality is typically used to request recording consent from meeting participants. The bot can announce it is recording through a chat message, an audio clip, or a video, ensuring compliance.
Zoom Bot Use Cases
Zoom bots are used by products that need access to meeting recordings, transcripts, or metadata. They are also used for products that need to interact during meetings, such as chatbots or AI agents.
Let’s go through some real companies and how they use Zoom bots.
Sales Use Case
Sales products often use Zoom bots to provide conversation intelligence features during Zoom calls. A great example is Attention. They use a Zoom bot to access transcripts from sales meetings, which they then analyze to generate a follow-up email and update the CRM.
Interviewing Use Case
Interview products like BrightHire use Zoom bots to capture recordings, transcripts, and metadata from interviews. BrightHire analyzes the transcript to take notes and breaks down the questions asked by the interviewer. Using metadata on who spoke when, it also calculates talk time. This helps interviewers improve their techniques.
Telehealth Use Case
Telehealth appointments often occur over Zoom, and many telehealth companies integrate with Zoom to enhance their services. Kintsugi Health uses Zoom bots to access real-time audio from sessions and analyzes it with voice biomarkers to detect mental wellness and health states.
Productivity Use Case
Since the bot appears as an extra participant, some companies use its video feature to display useful information. For example, Read AI uses their Zoom bot to show a timer, helping to keep meetings on track.
APIs to Create Zoom Bots
Option 1: Use the Recall.ai API
Recall.ai offers a meeting bot API that integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other video conferencing platforms. Over 400 companies, including Fellow, Grain, and Calendly, use Recall.ai for their meeting bots.
Using an API like Recall.ai lets you launch in under a week. Building a meeting bot from scratch would take at least 6 months.
Our tutorial shows how to build a Zoom bot with Recall.ai in just a few lines of code.
Option 2: Use Zoom’s Meeting Bot Starter Kit (also powered by Recall.ai)
Zoom has released an official Meeting Bot Starter Kit in partnership with Recall.ai. The starter kit gives you boilerplate code that records, transcribes, and summarizes a meeting.
Fork the Github repo, or watch a short demo of the Meeting Bot Starter Kit.
Option 3: Build a Zoom Bot from Scratch
Zoom does not provide an API specifically for Zoom bots, which is why they’ve partnered with Recall.ai to offer this functionality. If you choose not to use the Recall.ai API, you’ll need to build a Zoom bot from scratch.
Building a meeting bot from scratch varies for each video conferencing platform, so we'll outline the process for Zoom specifically:
Conclusion
Zoom bots are one of the most versatile ways to both get data out of Zoom and to push data back into the Zoom meeting. They can work on any Zoom account, and can access video streams, audio streams, transcription, and metadata from the meeting. To create a Zoom bot, you can use an API like Recall.ai, or build one from scratch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Zoom Have an API for Meeting Bots?
No, Zoom does not have an API for meeting bots. Instead, Zoom has partnered with companies such as Recall.ai, which is an API for meeting bots.
When building a Zoom Bot from Scratch, which Zoom Meeting SDK should be used?
Zoom has three Meeting SDKs. The Windows SDK, Web SDK, and Linux SDK. The Linux Zoom SDK is the recommended Meeting SDK for building meeting bots, as it is headless.
How does the Zoom Waiting Room Feature Affect Zoom Bots?
By default, the Zoom waiting room feature affects Zoom bots the same way it affects normal participants, requiring someone to let the bot in from the waiting room. However, you can configure your bot to bypass the Zoom waiting room as well.
