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Where is Granola's auto-join setting, and how does its privacy model compare to Fireflies?

Last updated 2026-08-17 · Confidence: documented — Granola’s and Fireflies’ help centers, read that day; transparency-feature defaults (chat notice, watermark) not yet checked in-app.

There is no such setting — Granola never transcribes a meeting you haven’t clicked into; the no-bot, transcript-only, private-by-default claims all check out.

The setting that doesn’t exist

Section titled “The setting that doesn’t exist”

Granola’s docs state directly that it “does not automatically transcribe meetings without you having clicked into a note”. Transcription starts only when you click a notification, open a meeting’s note, or hit ➕ New Note for an ad-hoc call. The one automatic behavior: if you click into an upcoming meeting’s note before it starts, transcription begins at the scheduled start time. An opt-in “automatically start Granola for all meetings” option is listed as under consideration — Granola cites the risk of “people accidentally transcrib[ing] meetings or moments that they didn’t want to be transcribed”.

Section titled “The calendar link”

Your primary Google or Microsoft calendar is synced by default; extra calendars are toggled on under Settings → Calendar (or the cog next to “Coming Up”). The calendar populates the meeting list and note pages — it does not trigger transcription.

Verified claims

Section titled “Verified claims”
  • No bot: “There is no meeting bot — Granola runs only on your computer and uses your system audio and microphone” (transcription docs).
  • Transcript, not recording: it “does not record or save audio or video at any point”; audio is cached only during transcription, then deleted. Recording support is explicitly not planned.
  • Private by default: “Your notes are private by default. No one in your workspace can see your notes unless you explicitly share them” — sharing levels are Private / Only your company / Anyone with link, and admins cannot see individual notes. One caveat from the same page: on Free and Business plans, anonymized data may be used for Granola’s model improvements by default (opt-out in settings).

Fireflies contrast

Section titled “Fireflies contrast”

Fireflies joins as a visible participant, “Fireflies.ai Notetaker”, and records audio (video on Business+). Its default auto-join is “All meetings with a web-conf link” (Settings → Recording & Privacy → Auto-record meetings), and its default visibility is “Teammates & anyone with link” — workspace teammates see every meeting in the #All Meetings tab. So the two defaults invert: Fireflies auto-captures and auto-shares; Granola captures nothing without a click and shares nothing without one either.

The practical habit to recommend instead of a toggle: click into the upcoming meeting’s note when the reminder notification fires, or pre-open the note and let it start on schedule.

Sources

Section titled “Sources”