If you are new to Late Meet, start with the README first, then use this FAQ for common setup, troubleshooting, privacy, and contribution questions.
This FAQ answers common questions from Late Meet users and contributors. It is intended to clarify the project's privacy model, browser requirements, AI provider setup, and contribution workflow.
Late Meet follows a bring-your-own-key (BYOK) model. Instead of routing your meeting audio or transcript data through a shared project server, the extension lets you connect directly to the AI providers using your own API keys.
This keeps usage under your control, avoids storing provider credentials on Late Meet servers, and lets each user manage their own billing, limits, and provider account settings.
Late Meet does not store meeting data on project servers.
Meeting-related data is kept locally in your browser using chrome.storage.local. This means the data stays on your device unless you explicitly export, share, or remove it through browser or extension actions.
Not yet. Late Meet currently supports Google Meet only.
Support for other meeting platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams is planned for Roadmap Phase 3.
If ElevenLabs transcription fails, Late Meet falls back to OpenAI Whisper for transcription.
This fallback helps keep transcription available even when the primary transcription provider is unavailable, rate-limited, or returns an error.
Late Meet needs audio capture permissions so it can access meeting audio from Google Meet and generate transcripts, summaries, and related meeting insights.
The permission is required for the extension's core functionality. Audio is processed through the configured AI providers using your own API keys, and meeting data is stored locally rather than on Late Meet servers.
Late Meet requires Chrome 116 or newer for native Side Panel support.
If you are using an older Chrome version, update Chrome before installing or testing the extension.
BYOK means "bring your own key." In Late Meet, users provide their own OpenAI and ElevenLabs API keys instead of relying on a shared backend or shared project-owned credentials.
The project adopted BYOK to keep the architecture privacy-focused, reduce backend infrastructure requirements, and give users direct control over provider accounts, billing, rate limits, and key management.
Late Meet uses Manifest V3 because it is the current Chrome extension platform standard.
Manifest V3 aligns the extension with Chrome's modern security, permissions, and service worker model. It also keeps the project compatible with current and future Chrome extension requirements.
Manifest V3 replaces persistent background pages with extension service workers. Service workers are event-driven and do not provide a normal long-lived DOM environment.
Late Meet uses Offscreen Documents for browser extension tasks that need DOM or media-related capabilities outside the visible extension UI, such as audio processing workflows that cannot run directly inside the service worker.
Yes. New AI providers can be added if they fit the project's architecture and privacy model.
Before opening a pull request, check the existing provider integration patterns and open or comment on an issue describing the provider, the use case, required permissions, configuration changes, and any fallback behavior. This helps maintainers confirm that the provider aligns with Late Meet's BYOK approach.
Find an open issue labeled for GSSoC or suitable for contributors, then comment clearly that you would like to work on it.
Mention your intended approach if the issue needs implementation decisions. Wait for a maintainer to assign the issue before opening a pull request, unless the repository's contribution guidelines say otherwise.
This usually means the key saved in the extension's options page does not match an active OpenAI key.
Open the OpenAI dashboard, confirm the key has not been revoked or regenerated, and re-paste it into Late Meet's options page without leading or trailing spaces. Also confirm the OpenAI account has billing enabled, since accounts with no usable credit can return errors that look like an invalid key.
This usually means the key was not copied correctly or was regenerated after it was first saved.
ElevenLabs only displays a key in full at the time it is created. Open your ElevenLabs profile settings, generate a fresh key if needed, and re-save it in Late Meet's options page.
Rate limit errors come from OpenAI or ElevenLabs, not from Late Meet itself.
Both providers cap usage based on your account tier. Check the usage and limits page on the relevant provider's dashboard. Late Meet does not automatically retry failed requests, so you will need to wait for your quota to reset or upgrade your plan before trying again.
This is usually because the permission grant did not apply to a tab that was already open before installation.
Go to chrome://extensions, open Late Meet's details, and confirm site access is allowed for meet.google.com. Then reload any Google Meet tab that was open before installing or updating the extension, since permission changes do not apply retroactively to existing tabs.
This is most often caused by tab focus or a conflict with another extension.
Late Meet uses Chrome's tabCapture API, which only works on the active, focused tab when capture starts. Make sure no other extension, such as a separate recorder or note-taker, is also requesting tab audio, since only one extension can hold tab capture at a time. If capture still fails, disable and re-enable Late Meet and restart the Meet tab.
This is usually a timing issue between joining the call and the extension recognizing the session.
Late Meet detects sessions based on the Meet call URL, so detection may not trigger until you have actually joined the call rather than while on the pre-join lobby screen. If the dashboard does not appear after joining, refresh the tab. Also confirm you are running the latest version of the extension, since changes to Meet's interface can occasionally affect detection until the extension is updated.
This is usually related to API key issues or audio conditions during the meeting.
Confirm your ElevenLabs key is valid and has remaining quota. Background noise and multiple overlapping speakers can also reduce transcription quality. If your internet connection dropped during the meeting, transcription may be incomplete since it depends on a live connection to the ElevenLabs API.
This is usually caused by an OpenAI key or billing issue, or a meeting that was too short to summarize.
Confirm your OpenAI key is valid and the account has available credit. Very short captured meetings may not contain enough content to generate a meaningful summary, which is expected behavior rather than a bug. For unexplained failures, check the service worker logs by going to chrome://extensions, opening Late Meet's details, and selecting "Inspect views: service worker."
Most setup issues come from skipping a step in the unpacked extension install process.
Make sure Developer mode is enabled in chrome://extensions before loading an unpacked build. Load the built dist/ folder rather than the repository root, and build the project first if installing from source. Finally, reload any Google Meet tabs that were already open before installing the extension.