PulsePre-meeting briefs
A feature that automatically pulls together background material from past notes and attendee information before a meeting starts.
A pre-meeting brief is a short summary of where things stand — what happened last time, and the situation at the other party — for a meeting that is about to begin. Open the meeting's note and a few key points appear, so a glance just before you join is enough to recall the background. It is available in the desktop app (macOS / Windows).
Team plan Enterprise plan
Requirements
A brief is created for meetings that meet all of the following. - you are on the Team or Enterprise plan - Google Calendar is connected - there is a participant from outside your own organisation (a client, customer, prospect, candidate and so on)
Support for Microsoft calendars is under consideration. For which features each plan includes, see Plans and billing.
Where it appears
Open the note for an upcoming meeting and the brief appears at the top of the chat panel. It is usually two or three bullet points covering open questions, relevant background, and the agenda for the day. Click to expand it and you can see everything that was gathered.
The brief collapsed at the top of the chat panel, with three bullet points each marked with its source.
Prepared overnight
Briefs are produced in a batch overnight. Pulse looks at your external meetings for the next day onwards, works out what is worth researching for each, and gathers what it needs. By the morning, working through the day's meetings in turn gives you the background for each of them.
The sources are as follows.
- past notes with the same person or company
- related notes shared within your workspace
- publicly available information on the web (including LinkedIn and similar)
- details and agenda given in the calendar event
- Gmail (only if connected)
Briefs are kept short enough to read quickly. The aim is that you walk into the meeting with the background in mind; it is not there to produce detailed documentation.
Connecting Gmail for more context
With Gmail connected, recent threads with the people you are meeting are consulted, and the brief includes what has been discussed over email.
There are two ways to connect.
- Click “Connect Gmail” on the banner shown below the brief.
- Settings > Integrations > Gmail.
To disconnect, use the same Settings > Integrations > Gmail. Briefs created after you disconnect will not include information from email.
Connecting Gmail means the bodies of your email exchanges with the people you meet are consulted when the brief is produced. They may contain correspondence with clients or information your company restricts, so before using this at work, check it against your internal rules and information handling policy.
Frequently asked questions
Q. No brief appears.
A. First check you meet the conditions listed under “Requirements” above. No brief is created for meetings with only internal colleagues.
Even when the conditions are met, no brief is created if not enough useful information was found. The typical case is a brand-new contact you have no history with, where there is neither public information nor a past note. The reasoning is that showing nothing is better than showing a thin brief.
Q. The brief is wrong.
A. Because a brief combines several sources, errors can creep in. Check important figures and proper nouns against the original material before relying on them in a meeting. If you spot a mistake, you can report it from the thumbs-down icon on the brief. Reports are used to improve generation quality.
Q. Can I get briefs for internal meetings?
A. As it stands, only meetings with external attendees are covered. To recall what happened last time before an internal meeting, open the meeting's note and ask chat, or search your past notes.
If something is not working
- The brief is out of date: briefs are produced overnight. A meeting arranged on the day, or an agenda changed at the last minute, may not be reflected.
- Information from Gmail is not included: Settings > Integrations > Gmail to check the connection.
- Briefs stopped after I changed calendar: briefs are not produced for calendars other than Google Calendar. Check which calendar is connected under Connect your calendar.