What counts as an answer?
One answer is one AI response: a detected-question answer, an Ask-anything reply, a Screen Assist result, or a refinement like Shorter or Deeper. On-device transcription is unlimited and never counts against your cap.
Which meeting apps work?
Effectively all of them. Aside listens to your computer’s microphone and system audio, so Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and even phone bridges work out of the box — no plugins, no bots joining your call. If your computer can hear it, Aside can help.
Is my audio uploaded?
Not unless you choose to. Out of the box, transcription happens on your computer with a local Whisper model and your audio never leaves it. When Aside generates an answer, it sends only the detected question and a short transcript excerpt — or your screen capture, for Screen Assist — to our API, which forwards it to Anthropic. We don’t store any conversation content, just usage counts for billing.
The one way audio leaves your machine is cloud transcription, a setting you turn on yourself. It is off by default and exists for PCs without the GPU power to transcribe in real time — on those machines the local models fall behind live speech and Aside starts skipping what was said. Turn it on and each utterance is transcribed on our servers instead, then discarded; the on-device model stays loaded and takes back over if a request fails.
Can others see the panel when I share my screen?
No. The panel is excluded from screen capture by macOS and Windows — the same mechanism password managers use to keep credentials out of recordings. It’s there so your own notes and half-written drafts don’t end up in a recorded demo, the way you wouldn’t want your unread messages in one either.
That’s a privacy feature, not a disguise. Aside isn’t built to hide that you use it, and we’d tell anyone to mention it the same way they’d mention taking notes. Where you are asked not to use an assistant — a proctored exam, an assessment with its own rules — don’t.
What happens when I hit my cap?
Answers pause until your cap resets on your billing date — or resume immediately if you upgrade. Transcription keeps running on-device either way.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Manage or cancel your subscription through the Paddle billing portal in a couple of clicks. You keep full access until the end of your current billing period.
What does Aside need to run?
On a Mac: macOS 14.6 or later; Apple Silicon is recommended for the best on-device transcription. On first launch you’ll grant microphone and system-audio permissions so Aside can hear both sides of the call.
On Windows: Windows 10 (version 2004) or Windows 11, 64-bit. A GPU with Vulkan drivers (any recent NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) keeps transcription real-time; without one it runs on the CPU, just more slowly. The download is a ZIP you unzip and run — no installer, no admin rights, everything bundled.
Either way, plan on 8 GB of RAM and about 1 GB of free space for the app and its on-device speech model. Answers need an internet connection; transcription never does.