Back to Help Center

Getting started

Record a conversation from your iPhone

2 min read

Fluent works without a pendant. Phone capture is rolling out: record a meeting straight from your iPhone's microphone and get the same transcripts, meeting notes, action items, and people profiles as pendant audio.

Record a conversation

  1. Open Fluent and tap the record button on the home screen.
  2. Put the phone on the table — microphone side toward the room. Live transcription starts as people talk.
  3. Tap to stop when the conversation ends. The recording uploads, gets processed, and lands as a conversation with a transcript and notes.

Keep the phone's mic unobstructed — a laptop or papers over the bottom edge muffles the room noticeably.

When the phone is enough, and when it isn't

Meetings, interviews, dinners, site visits — anywhere you can put a phone on a table, phone capture works.

All-day ambient capture — the pendant is still the right tool. Recording continuously from a phone means a deliberate start/stop every time and a mic that lives in your pocket, not on your collar. If that's the use case, pair a pendant.

The mechanism doesn't change the law. If you're in an all-party-consent state or recording someone who'd reasonably object, disclose first — the consent guide covers how professionals handle it.

Related questions

Do I still need a pendant?

Not for meetings — phone capture records straight from your iPhone's microphone. A pendant still wins for all-day ambient capture, where pulling out your phone isn't practical.

Does the other person see anything?

Fluent records locally on your device — nothing joins the room or announces itself. Recording laws still apply; in all-party-consent states you need everyone's agreement. See the consent guide.

Does phone capture drain the battery?

Recording and live transcription use power, but a normal meeting is fine on a typical charge. For all-day capture, that's what the pendant is for.