Apple Shortcuts for meeting notes: your latest summary, open to-dos and dictations in one action
Key takeaways
- Voxdrop 2.3 adds five actions to the Shortcuts app on the Mac: latest meeting summary, latest transcript, open to-dos, search meetings and recent dictations.
- They appear automatically once Voxdrop is installed – no setup, no account, and they don't need the AI-tools switch.
- Each action returns plain text you can copy, show, append to a note or pass on – on a keyboard shortcut or on a schedule (time-of-day automations need macOS 26 or later).
If you take notes in calls, the useful part usually ends up somewhere else: a Slack message, a daily note, a ticket. Voxdrop already transcribes and summarizes your calls on the Mac. Since version 2.3 it also hands that text to Apple's Shortcuts app, so you can move it where it belongs without opening Voxdrop. Here is what the five actions do, and three automations that are worth the five minutes it takes to build them.
Which Voxdrop actions are in the Shortcuts app?
Five, all read-only. Each one returns text: the meeting's title and date as a first line, then the content. Nothing in Voxdrop changes when a shortcut runs.
| Action | Returns | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Latest meeting summary | The short summary of your latest meeting (the detailed one if there's no short version) | Paste into Slack, Teams or a ticket |
| Latest meeting transcript | The full transcript, one line per speaker turn | Archive, your own AI prompt |
| Open meeting to-dos | All open to-dos from meetings of the last two weeks, newest first | End-of-day review |
| Search meetings | Up to 10 meetings whose title, summary, to-dos or transcript contain all your words, with a snippet | "What did we decide about X?" |
| Recent dictations | Your last 1–50 dictations (default 5), newest first | Dictation journal |
How do I set it up?
There is nothing to set up. Apple built App Shortcuts so they show up as soon as an app is installed. Open the Shortcuts app, search for “Voxdrop” and drag an action into a shortcut. In Voxdrop, Settings → Integrations → Shortcuts → Open takes you straight there.
The actions read directly from Voxdrop on your Mac. They don't need the switch “Let AI tools and the terminal read meetings” – that one is for the MCP server and the terminal – and they don't need an internet connection.
Which automations are worth building?
1. The latest summary on a key
New shortcut → Latest meeting summary → Copy to Clipboard. In the shortcut's details, choose Add Keyboard Shortcut and press a combination such as ⌃⌥⌘S. After your next call, one key press puts the summary on the clipboard, ready for Slack, Teams or a ticket.
2. Open to-dos every weekday at 17:30
In the Automation section of the Shortcuts app, create a Time of Day automation (on the Mac from macOS 26): weekdays, 17:30, running Open meeting to-dos → Show Result. Swap Show Result for Append to Note if you'd rather collect them in one Apple Notes note. How the to-dos are found in the first place is explained in this post on meeting to-dos.
3. Search before you ask
Ask for Input → Search meetings (search text: the provided input) → Show Result. Type “pricing” and you get up to ten meetings with a snippet each – handy before you ask a colleague about something you already discussed last week.
Shortcuts, export, MCP or terminal: which one is for what?
Voxdrop 2.3 has four ways to get meetings out of the app. They read the same data; they differ in where the text goes next.
| Integration | Best for | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Shortcuts | Quick hand-offs: clipboard, notes, messages, schedules | Nothing – there by default |
| Folder export (Markdown/JSON) | Obsidian vault, n8n/Make, your own archive | A folder you choose |
| MCP server | Asking Claude, Cursor or Codex about your meetings | The "AI tools & terminal" switch |
| voxdrop command | Scripts and the terminal | The same switch |
Details: Markdown export for Obsidian and local MCP server and voxdrop command. (Disclosure: Voxdrop is our app.)
Honest caveats
- Plain text, not fields. The actions return text. If you need structure – date, duration, who owns which to-do – use the JSON export or
voxdrop … --json. - Fixed windows. “Open meeting to-dos” looks back two weeks; “Search meetings” returns at most ten meetings; summary and transcript always mean the latest meeting.
- Mac only. Voxdrop has no iPhone app, so the actions don't show up in Shortcuts on iOS.
- Your shortcut, your destination. Transcripts are real conversations. If a shortcut sends them to a cloud service, that service has them.
FAQ
Does Voxdrop work with Apple Shortcuts on the Mac?
Yes, since version 2.3. Voxdrop adds five actions to the Shortcuts app: Latest meeting summary, Latest meeting transcript, Open meeting to-dos, Search meetings and Recent dictations. Each one returns plain text.
Do I have to turn anything on for the Shortcuts actions?
No. The actions appear in the Shortcuts app as soon as Voxdrop is installed. They read directly from Voxdrop and do not depend on the switch for AI tools and the terminal.
Can a Voxdrop shortcut run on a schedule or on a key?
Yes. Any shortcut can get a keyboard shortcut in its details. Time-of-day automations are available on the Mac from macOS 26, so you can, for example, list your open to-dos every weekday at 17:30.
Do the Shortcuts actions send my meetings anywhere?
No. They read from Voxdrop on your Mac and hand the text to your shortcut. What happens next is up to the shortcut: if it posts to Slack, Slack receives that text.
Can I get the summary of a specific older meeting?
The summary and transcript actions always use your latest meeting. For an older one, use Search meetings with a word from it, or the terminal command voxdrop show, which takes a meeting id.
Read next
- Meeting action items on the Mac, without a bot in the call
- Meeting notes in Obsidian, automatically
- Ask Claude about your meetings: a local MCP server
Get Voxdrop
Voxdrop is on-device voice-to-text for any Mac app — hit a hotkey, speak, and the text appears at your cursor. Local Whisper, €9.99 Early-Bird (first 500 buyers) or €14.99 Standard, one-time, no subscription. License key right after checkout, 14-day money-back.