PulsePulse basics
Start with the layout of the app and how a meeting note comes together.
This article walks you through what is where when you open the Pulse desktop app. It also explains the order in which a calendar event becomes a finished meeting note. Detailed steps for individual features are linked from the text.
If you have not installed and signed in yet, work through the First-time setup guide first.
A sidebar of spaces and folders on the left, “Upcoming events” at the top centre, and the list of notes you have already created below it. Entry points for chat and settings sit at the edge of the screen.
The layout of the app
The home screen is made up of five areas: upcoming events, your notes, spaces and folders, chat, and settings. We will go through them in turn.
1. Upcoming events
Once you connect a calendar, your next events appear across the top of the screen. Clicking an event creates a note for that meeting. You can click it before the meeting to jot down the points you want to raise or the questions you want to ask, or click it once the meeting has begun to start transcription there and then.
By default five events are shown. The arrows on either side move further ahead. How to connect a calendar, and how multiple calendars are handled, are covered in Connect your calendar.
2. Your notes
Notes created from a calendar event and one-off notes with no event attached both appear in this list. You can organise notes into folders. If you select several notes and then ask chat a question, the answer draws only on the notes you selected. For how to write notes in your own words during a meeting, see Writing your own notes.
3. Spaces and folders
The sidebar is divided into two kinds of space. “My notes” is an area only you can see; a team space is an area the members of your workspace can see. You can create folders inside either kind of space. That lets you organise notes by folder, share them with colleagues, and ask chat a question about all the meetings in a given folder at once. The thinking behind the design is explained in Spaces and folders.
4. Chat
This lets you ask questions about the meeting notes you have built up. It suits things like recalling a deadline agreed at the last meeting, pulling out a concern that recurs across several deals, or drafting the message you want to send after a meeting. How to use it is covered in Asking your notes questions (chat).
5. Settings
In settings you can adjust how Pulse behaves to suit your own work. The main options, and where to read more, are as follows.
| What you want to set | Article to read |
|---|---|
| Record your role and responsibilities so summaries are angled to suit | Profile and preferences |
| Fix the heading structure of your notes with a template | Shape your notes with templates |
| Choose the language spoken in the meeting and the language of the summary | Multi-language support |
| Register hard-to-catch words such as company and department names | Customising transcription |
| Set up connections to external services | Integrations overview |
| Change your plan or check your payment method | Plans and billing |
| Invite members and use Pulse as a team | Workspaces |
How a note comes together
Open the meeting note
Click a meeting under “Upcoming events” and its note opens. For a discussion that is not in your calendar, create one with [+ New note].
Audio is transcribed during the meeting
While the note is open, Pulse captures the meeting audio from your computer's microphone and system audio and transcribes it. Which audio is captured, and how to stop recording, are covered in How transcription works.
Add your own notes
Anything you notice during the meeting can be typed straight into the note. What you write stays in the tidied-up note after the meeting.
The note is tidied up after the meeting
Using the transcript and your own notes, a note organised under headings is produced. How that works, and how to regenerate it, are covered in AI-enhanced notes.
Organise it and share it
Once the note is ready you can file it in a folder, share it, or dig into it further in chat.
Pulse does not send a recording bot into your meeting, and it does not start recording by itself in the background. Transcription starts only when you do one of the following: click the notification, open an event whose start time has passed, create a new note, or leave the note for an upcoming event open as its start time arrives. Each of those conditions is set out in How transcription works, and how to adjust the notification before a meeting starts is covered in Notification settings.