Granola has built a strong following among people who dislike the idea of a bot joining their calls, and it has earned that reputation fairly: it records quietly in the background and hands you notes the moment a meeting ends. A growing number of Indian teams try it next, right after Otter or Fireflies, and the questions that come up a few weeks in are familiar: what happens in a standup that drifts between Hindi and English in the same sentence, and what happens when the notes need to be a proper minutes of meeting, not just a page of bullet points. If you are looking for a Granola alternative for Indian teams, this guide checks Granola's own help pages and product site against those two situations, gives credit where it is due, and leaves you with a checklist to run on any alternative, Zrec included.
What Granola actually does well
Based on Granola's own documentation and product pages, there is real substance here, and it deserves a fair hearing before any comparison starts.
- No bot, by design. Granola does not join the call at all. It runs on your computer and transcribes using your system audio in the background, which is the whole reason people seek it out in the first place.
- In-person meetings, from the laptop itself. Unlike several notetakers that push in-person capture onto a phone app, Granola's desktop app is built to sit on the table during a real conversation. It picks up the room through the laptop's microphone and any remote participants through system audio, so it also covers hybrid meetings with some people in the room and some on a call.
- A wide language list on desktop. Granola's help center lists 31 transcription languages for its Mac and Windows apps, including Hindi, Marathi and Urdu, well ahead of notetakers that only handle English. A multi-language setting also lets it follow a meeting where speakers move between those listed languages rather than sticking to one throughout.
- Notes and next steps ready at the end of the call. Granola turns the transcript into topic-based notes with a next steps section naming who owns what, plus a pre-meeting brief covering attendees and prior discussions. Notes are private by default until you choose to share them.
None of this is unique to Granola among AI notetakers, but it is genuine, and it explains why teams that meet mostly online, in languages Granola lists, find little to complain about.
Where Indian teams hit limits with Granola
Three gaps show up once an Indian team relies on Granola for a few months, based on what its own help center says today.
Hindi is listed, Hinglish is not. Having Hindi on the supported language list, and a setting that follows a speaker moving between listed languages, puts Granola ahead of notetakers that skip Indian languages entirely. But Granola's documentation does not describe Hinglish specifically, the Hindi and English code switching that happens inside a single sentence on most Indian sales calls and client reviews, as opposed to a speaker changing languages between one sentence and the next. A tool built to track distinct languages can still fragment when the switch happens mid-sentence, so this is worth testing on a real meeting rather than assuming the language list settles it.
Notes, not a fixed minutes of meeting. Granola's output is topic headings with bullet points and a next steps list, which reads well for a quick recap but is not the same as a standing minutes of meeting format with a decisions section every single time. A board or client meeting that needs the same structure each time, summary, decisions, action items with owners and due dates, still means shaping Granola's notes into that format yourself.
No described link from an action item back to the recording. Granola's pages describe action items and follow-up suggestions, but not a built-in link from a specific decision or action item to the exact moment it was said in the recording. For a team settling a dispute about who agreed to what, that link matters more than a well-written summary.
Consent and retention sit with the user. Granola's security pages say plainly that getting participant consent is the user's responsibility, and point to general advice rather than a built-in consent notice tool. Audio itself is deleted once transcription finishes, which is good practice, but notes and transcripts are kept indefinitely unless you set an auto-deletion period yourself, and there is no described option for a guest without an account to request their own data be deleted.
None of this makes Granola a weak product. It makes it a product whose Indian-language handling and meeting structure are a step ahead of some competitors, while still leaving Hinglish, a fixed MOM format and consent handling as gaps worth checking yourself.
A checklist for any Granola alternative, Zrec included
Run this list on every tool on your shortlist, not only the one you end up choosing. Check each claim against the vendor's own pages, the way this guide checked Granola's.
Granola alternative checklist
Recording
- Does it record in-person meetings from the laptop already on the table, or only through a separate phone app?
- Does it work the same way for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and in-person meetings, without switching tools?
Language
- Does it list Hindi as supported, and does it say anything specifically about Hinglish or a speaker switching languages mid-sentence?
- Does accuracy hold up on a real Hinglish meeting, not just a meeting where each person speaks one language throughout?
Output
- Does every meeting get the same minutes of meeting structure by default: summary, decisions, action items with owners and due dates?
- Can every decision and action item be traced back to the exact moment it was said, without you building that link yourself?
Privacy and consent
- Does it offer a recording consent notice you can paste into the meeting chat, or does the responsibility sit entirely with you?
- Can you set how long notes and audio are kept, and can a guest without an account ask for their data to be deleted?
For the background on the consent question specifically, see our guide on whether it is legal to record meetings in India.
Granola vs an alternative built for Indian meetings
Here is the same checklist filled in with what each one can verifiably do today, based on public product pages.
| What to check | Granola | What to look for in an alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Bot-free recording | Yes, by design, with no bot option to manage | Records from the computer by default, with no bot ever in the call |
| In-person meetings | Yes, from the desktop app, including hybrid meetings | Same approach for online and in-person meetings, with no separate phone app needed |
| Hindi and Hinglish | Hindi listed among 31 desktop languages; Hinglish code switching not described | Understands Hindi, English and Hinglish in the same conversation, mid-sentence |
| Minutes, not just notes | Topic-based notes with a next steps list; MOM format is something you shape yourself | Writes minutes automatically in one consistent format every time |
| Decision traceability | Action items and follow-ups; no described link to the exact recorded moment | Every decision links straight to the moment it was said, automatically |
| Consent and retention | Consent is the user's responsibility; notes kept indefinitely unless you set deletion yourself | A copyable consent notice and a retention window you set on day one |
Switching from Granola without losing your meeting history
If Granola has been your notetaker for a while, do not just stop using it and move on. A clean switch takes about half an hour and protects months of notes and context.
Switching checklist
- Export or copy your Granola notes and any shared documents before the account lapses, so past meetings stay searchable.
- Tell your team the exact switch date, so people do not keep two notetakers running out of habit.
- Set your retention window on the new tool from day one, rather than leaving it at whatever default it ships with.
- Run one busy week on both tools in parallel for meetings that matter, the way Meera's client services team did before trusting a new tool with quarterly reviews, then drop the old one once the minutes line up.
How to run this comparison on your own meetings
A feature table only tells you so much. Pick one real Hinglish client call and one in-person review from the last fortnight, run both through Granola and through the alternative you are considering, and put the two sets of notes side by side. Look closely at names, numbers, and any sentence where the speaker moves between Hindi and English without pausing. That single test will tell you more than any comparison, including this one.
Doing this with Zrec
Zrec was built around the two gaps this guide covers. It records meetings from the user's own computer, with no bot joining the call, and the same approach covers Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and in-person meetings around a table, including hybrid ones. It understands English, Hindi and Hinglish, transcribing Hinglish in Roman script while keeping the minutes themselves in clean English. Every meeting gets minutes automatically, in one consistent format: summary, decisions and action items with owners and due dates, each one linked to the exact moment it was said in the recording. A one-click consent notice and a retention window you control, from 7 to 365 days, are part of the setup from day one, along with deletion requests for guests who never created an account. If Hinglish meetings and a standing MOM format matter to your team, it is worth testing Zrec against Granola on one real meeting using the checklist above.
For more on choosing between the wider set of AI notetakers available to Indian teams, see our guide to the best AI notetakers for Indian teams, and for more on the language side specifically, see how to record Hinglish meetings and get notes in English. You can also start from the Zrec home page to see how the recording and minutes actually look.
Otter and Fathom are the other tools teams often weigh against Granola, so read our Otter alternative guide and our Fathom alternative guide for the same checklist applied to each. Teams deciding between a transcript and a proper MOM should read MOM vs meeting notes.
Before you commit to any Granola alternative, run one real Hinglish or in-person meeting through it first. A help page tells you what a tool is built to do, one meeting tells you what it actually does for your team.