Shiyin
A meeting-notes app for Windows
Record, transcribe and write up meetings, all on your PC.
Every note has a timestamp: click it to hear what was actually said.
Follow the transcript while you record
Click Record (Ctrl+R) and the transcript appears a few seconds after each sentence. For online meetings, set the source to “Microphone + computer audio” and the other side of Zoom, Meet or Teams is recorded too, with no bot joining the call. When Teams or Zoom starts a meeting, Shiyin asks whether to start recording.
Take notes on the right; each new line gets the current recording time. Click Bookmark for important moments, or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B from any app. Close the window and Shiyin keeps running in the system tray without stopping the recording.
When you stop, your PC transcribes it properly
After you stop, Shiyin transcribes the recording again on your PC. It’s more accurate than the live transcript, and it tells the speakers apart. Rename “Speaker 1” once and the whole meeting follows; Shiyin remembers the voice and fills in the name in later meetings.
Chinese and English use Breeze ASR 25, tuned for Taiwanese Mandarin mixed with English; Japanese meetings use Whisper. Add product and people’s names to the glossary and transcription takes them into account.
With an NVIDIA graphics card, Shiyin downloads GPU acceleration automatically (about 685 MB) and transcribes on the GPU: a 40-minute meeting took about 8 minutes on an RTX 3060, versus about 30 minutes on the CPU alone. Without an NVIDIA card it still works, just more slowly.
Meeting notes that ask when they’re unsure
As soon as you stop, draft notes are written from the live transcript, then replaced when the final transcript is ready: a summary, decisions, action items and open questions. Each item has a timestamp: if something looks wrong, click it and listen from that point.
Names, terms, owners and due dates the summarizer isn’t sure about are listed under “To confirm”. Answer them and the notes are revised. Words in the transcript that were probably misheard are marked too, and nothing changes until you click Accept.
Looking for something? Ask the meeting, like “What budget did we settle on?”, and the answer comes with timestamps. You can ask all your meetings at once, too.
Templates: General meeting, One-on-one, Interview, Lecture / talk, Brainstorm, or your own. You can edit the notes directly, and every change is versioned.
Your recordings stay on your PC
Transcription and speaker identification run locally and don’t need the internet. Only when the notes are written or you ask a meeting a question is text sent to the summarizer you choose.
Stays on your PC
- Recordings
- Transcription and speaker identification
- The voices of speakers Shiyin remembers
- All your meetings and notes
Sent to the summarizer you choose
- The transcript text
- Your notes and glossary
- Meeting title and date
The summarizer can be Claude Code or Codex, using the Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already have, or the Anthropic or OpenAI API. Or choose “Don’t summarize” and keep just the transcript.
Shiyin also sends its developer a daily anonymous usage summary (such as the version and minutes used, never any meeting content). You can turn it off in Settings → Advanced.
Download for Windows
- Version
- 4.0.0Release notes on GitHub
- System
- Windows 11 (x64 or ARM)
- Memory
- 8 GB or more
- Disk space
- About 2 GB of models, downloaded on first use (Quick recognition is used until then); about 1.1 GB more for GPU acceleration with an NVIDIA card; about 570 MB more for Japanese meetings
- Graphics
- Not required; an NVIDIA card is used automatically to speed up transcription
- Price
- Free, open source under the MIT License
Performance
- Fastest with an NVIDIA graphics card: a 40-minute meeting took about 8 minutes on an RTX 3060. 4 GB of video memory or more is recommended (the transcription model is about 1.7 GB), and the NVIDIA driver needs to be version 527 or later; with an older driver Shiyin transcribes on the CPU.
- Slower on the CPU alone: the same meeting took about 30 minutes on the same desktop without the GPU; laptops and older CPUs take longer, possibly longer than the meeting itself. Transcription uses up to 8 threads, so more cores help. ARM PCs such as Snapdragon use the CPU only.
- In a hurry? In Settings → Recording, set “Transcription” to “Quick recognition”. It’s much faster, but less accurate and doesn’t use the glossary.
- Light while recording: the live transcript uses about a third of one CPU core; full transcription runs in the background and you can keep using the PC.
Download Shiyin-4.0.0-win-x64-Setup.exe
For ARM PCs (such as Snapdragon), download this one
Installing:
- Double-click the installer. No administrator rights needed; it installs in seconds and adds Shiyin to the Start menu and desktop.
- If “Windows protected your PC” appears, click “More info” → “Run anyway”. Shiyin isn’t code-signed yet, so Windows holds back new apps the first time.
- The first time it opens, a guide walks you through the microphone, downloading the models and choosing a summarizer.
With Smart App Control on, unsigned apps are blocked outright, with no “Run anyway”. Turn it off in Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control settings, or wait for a signed release.
When a new version is out, Shiyin asks you in the app whether to update.
Shiyin is a personal open-source project. If you find it useful, a star on GitHub helps more people find it, or you can buy me a coffee.
What’s new
4.0.0October 22, 2026
- Recording (microphone and computer audio, so both sides of an online meeting), live transcript, transcription on this PC, speaker identification, meeting notes and export, with the same features as Mac 4.0
- Runs on Windows 11 x64 and ARM64 PCs; with an NVIDIA graphics card, Shiyin downloads an add-on that makes transcription much faster
- The installer isn't code-signed: if “Windows protected your PC” appears, click “More info” → “Run anyway”
- When a new version is out, Shiyin asks you in the app whether to update
Questions
Does it cost anything?
Shiyin is free. Meeting notes are written with your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API credit. Choose “Don’t summarize” and you get just the transcript, at no cost.
Does it work without an NVIDIA graphics card?
Yes. Transcription runs on the CPU, which is slower: a 40-minute meeting took about 30 minutes on a desktop, and laptops take longer. AMD and Intel graphics also use the CPU for now. In a hurry? Set “Transcription” to “Quick recognition” in Settings → Recording: much faster, but less accurate.
Why does Windows block it?
Shiyin isn’t code-signed yet, and SmartScreen holds back new, unsigned apps. Click “More info” → “Run anyway” to install. With Smart App Control on there’s no “Run anyway”; turn it off first, or wait for a signed release.
Can I move meetings between Mac and Windows?
Yes. Export a .shiyin package on one and import it on the other: the recording, transcript, speaker names, meeting notes and your notes all come along. Remembered voices don’t, because the two versions use different recognition models.
Does it need the internet?
Recording, transcription and speaker identification don’t. Downloading the models the first time, writing the notes and asking your meetings questions do.
Does it run on Windows 10?
No. Windows 10 is no longer supported, and recording computer audio (without Shiyin’s own sounds) relies on a Windows 11 feature.