tl;dv built its name on being free and fast: record a call, get a transcript and a summary within minutes, and skip the setup most AI notetakers ask for. A lot of Indian teams reach for it for exactly that reason. The gaps tend to show up later, once a sales call wanders between Hindi and English in the same breath, or someone needs to record a client meeting held around a table rather than on a screen. If you are weighing a tl;dv alternative for Indian teams, this guide is a fact checked comparison built from tl;dv's own product and help pages: what it does well, where the gaps sit for Indian meetings specifically, and a checklist to run on any alternative you shortlist, Zrec included.
What tl;dv actually does well
Credit where it is due, because a fair comparison has to start here. Based on tl;dv's own pages, a few things are genuinely solid:
- Bot-free recording for the main platforms. tl;dv's desktop app captures system audio directly for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, so no bot joins the call as a visible participant.
- A generous free plan. Unlimited recordings and transcriptions are available without a paid plan, which is why so many individuals and small teams try it first.
- Wide transcription coverage. tl;dv lists support for over 30 languages, Hindi included, and its help centre describes a mode that can detect language switches automatically within a single meeting.
- A dedicated mobile app for in-person audio. Beyond the desktop app for online calls, tl;dv ships a separate mobile app built specifically to record in-person conversations on a phone, including offline, with the recording uploaded once connectivity returns.
For a team that mostly meets online, wants a quick start and does not need every meeting kept forever, tl;dv covers a lot of ground without asking for a card upfront.
Where Indian teams hit limits with tl;dv
Three things stand out once you look past the feature list and into how the product actually behaves on an Indian meeting.
In-person meetings need a second app and a second device habit. tl;dv's own help pages are clear that in-person recording lives in a separate mobile app from the one used for online calls, it records audio only with no video, and a single recording is capped at three hours. You also cannot view the meeting or transcript inside that mobile app itself, you have to wait for it to sync and open the result elsewhere. For a team that records a client walk-in on a laptop sitting on the same table, switching to a phone app, remembering it is audio-only, and watching the clock for the three-hour cap is one more thing to get right in the room.
Hinglish support exists but is not described as automatic. tl;dv's help centre says its system "can automatically detect which language is being spoken" and transcribe multiple languages within one meeting, but this sits specifically under its Whisper transcription model, described as supporting more languages through auto-detection than the default model. Nothing in tl;dv's own pages states that minutes or summaries are always written in English regardless of how much Hindi was spoken, so a Hindi-heavy call risks coming back with notes in a mix a client in another city may not read as easily.
Recordings do not stay indefinitely on every plan. tl;dv's own help article on retention says free plan recordings are kept for three months before scheduled deletion, with notice given beforehand. That is workable if you remember to export in time, but it means the free plan is not a place to park a year of client meetings and forget about them, and tl;dv's pages do not describe a way to set your own custom retention window shorter or longer than the plan default.
None of this makes tl;dv a weak product. It means the three things that matter most for Indian meetings, in-person recording from the same device, Hinglish handled without a setting to find, and a retention window you control, each sit a step away from the main product rather than built into it by default.
A checklist for any tl;dv alternative, Zrec included
Run this list against every tool you are considering, not just the one you expect to pick. Check each line against the vendor's own pages, the same way this guide checked tl;dv's.
tl;dv alternative checklist
Recording
- Does it record an in-person meeting from the same laptop app used for online calls, or does that need a separate app, a different device or an audio-only mode?
- Is there a cap on recording length, and does the recording stay as video, audio, or both?
Language
- Is Hinglish handling on by default, or does it live behind a specific model or setting you have to pick before the meeting?
- Are minutes always written in one consistent language, whatever mix of Hindi and English the meeting actually used?
Output
- Does it produce minutes of meeting with decisions and action items, owners and due dates, not only a transcript and a summary paragraph?
- Can you open the recording or transcript straight from the device you recorded on, without waiting for a separate sync step?
Privacy and retention
- Can you set your own retention window for audio, rather than accepting a fixed plan default?
- Is there a one-click recording consent notice for the meeting chat, and a way to delete a guest's recording on request?
For the legal side of that last section, see our guide on whether it is legal to record meetings in India.
tl;dv vs an alternative built for Indian meetings
Here is the checklist filled in with what each one can verifiably do today, based on public product and help pages.
| What to check | tl;dv | What to look for in an alternative |
|---|---|---|
| In-person recording | A separate mobile app, audio only, capped at three hours, no in-app playback | Recorded from the same laptop app used for online calls, with no separate device needed |
| Hinglish by default | Automatic language detection exists, but tied to a specific transcription model rather than stated as a default | Understands Hindi, English and Hinglish on every call automatically |
| Consistent minutes language | Not stated on tl;dv's own pages | Minutes are always written in English, whatever the meeting's mix of languages |
| Retention control | Free plan recordings are deleted after three months on a fixed schedule, no custom window mentioned | A retention window you set yourself, from days to a year |
| Decision traceability | Transcript, summary and action items, with timestamps back to the recording | Every decision links straight to the moment it was said in the recording |
| Consent notice | A general privacy policy, no built-in consent notice mentioned on its product pages | A copyable consent notice you can paste into the meeting chat |
Switching from tl;dv without losing your old minutes
If tl;dv has been recording your meetings for a while, especially on the free plan, do not simply stop using it. A careful switch takes less than an hour and protects months of meeting history before anything ages out.
Switching checklist
- Export transcripts, summaries and recordings before the free plan's three-month window quietly removes them.
- Tell the team the exact date the switch happens, so nobody keeps two notetakers running out of habit.
- Set the retention window on the new tool immediately, rather than leaving it at whatever default it ships with.
- Run one real week on both tools together, the way a sales team might before moving their client calls over, and compare the two sets of minutes before dropping the old one.
How to run this comparison on your own meetings
A feature table only gets you so far. Take a recent Hinglish sales call, and separately, a client meeting held around a table rather than on a screen, and run both through tl;dv and through the alternative you are weighing. Check whether the minutes come back in English either way, whether the in-person recording needed a different app or device, and whether anything needed a setting switched on first. That one test tells you more than any comparison article, this one included.
Doing this with Zrec
Zrec was built around the three gaps this guide covers. It records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles and in-person meetings all from the same app on the user's own computer, with no bot joining the call and no separate phone app needed for a meeting around a table. Hindi and Hinglish are understood by default on every call, with Hinglish transcribed in Roman script and the minutes always written in clean English, whatever mix of languages the meeting actually used. Every meeting gets minutes automatically: summary, decisions and action items with owners and due dates, each one linked to the exact moment it was said in the recording. Audio deletion is set between 7 and 365 days, whichever a team chooses, and a one-click consent notice is built in for the meeting chat. If a generous free tier is the main reason you picked tl;dv, it is worth weighing that against getting in-person recording and Hinglish handling by default, from the start.
For a wider look at the options 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.
Also comparing Otter or Fireflies? Our Otter alternative guide and Fireflies alternative guide run the same checklist, as do the Notta and Read AI guides. If a visible bot is the real problem, read how to record a meeting without a bot joining.
Before switching away from tl;dv, run one real in-person or Hinglish meeting through the alternative first. A feature list tells you what a tool claims, one meeting tells you what it actually keeps.