Desktop App
Bob Studio is available as a native desktop application for macOS and Windows. The desktop app provides features that aren't possible in the browser, including system audio capture and menu bar integration.
Key features
- System audio recording - Capture both microphone and system audio (e.g., a remote meeting) in a single recording, with echo reduction on the microphone track when system audio is available
- Menu bar icon - Quick access to recordings and app controls from the system tray / menu bar
- Safe local recovery - Desktop recordings are saved locally while you record, then uploaded automatically when the app is ready
- Launch at login - Automatically start Bob Studio when you log in
- Auto-updates - The app checks for updates and prompts you to install them
- Deep link authentication - Log in via magic link without copy-pasting tokens
Menu bar icon
When running the desktop app, a Bob Studio icon appears in the macOS menu bar (or Windows system tray). It supports two interaction modes:
- Left-click → Tray panel - Opens a custom panel anchored under the icon, with all the actions you typically need (start a recording, jump into a scheduled meeting, see the live recording status).
- Right-click → Native menu - Quick fallback with: Show Bob Studio, Launch at login (checkbox), Quit Bob Studio. The status row shows the current recording state.
The status row in the native menu is one of:
- No active recordings — idle.
- ● Recording in progress — Bob Studio is currently capturing audio. Only one recording at a time is allowed: starting a new recording while one is in progress is rejected with a toast.
Tray panel
Clicking the menu-bar icon opens a designed panel (≈360×540 px) with two main views:
Idle view
- Start a recording — primary button to start a quick recording immediately.
- Today's meetings — list of today's appointments that have not been recorded yet, sorted by start time. Each row shows the title, time and a quick Record button that starts a recording linked to that appointment.
- Empty state when no meetings are scheduled today.
Recording view
- Pulsing red indicator and the meeting title.
- Animated activity bars (recording feedback).
- Live elapsed time (HH:MM:SS).
- Big red Stop recording button.
Footer (always visible)
- Show app — bring the main Bob Studio window to the front.
- Settings — open the main window on the Settings page.
- Quit — close Bob Studio.
The panel auto-hides when it loses focus (click anywhere outside) and toggles on subsequent clicks of the tray icon.
Desktop App settings
In Settings → Desktop App (visible only in the desktop app), you can configure:
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Menu bar icon | Show or hide the Bob Studio icon in the menu bar / system tray | On |
| Launch at login | Automatically start the app when you log in | On |
| Noise and echo reduction | Reduce speaker echo and background noise in microphone recordings | On |
Meeting popup (macOS)
When you join an online meeting, a small floating popup appears at the top of your screen. From it you can start a Bob Studio recording with one click, or dismiss it. The popup floats above other apps and is visible across all macOS Spaces.
The popup is triggered by:
- Scheduled appointments - Online meetings on your calendar that are about to start (or just started) in Bob Studio
- Ad-hoc detection - Meetings already in progress, detected from local network connections (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex)
- Browser detection (opt-in) - Meeting URLs (Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex) read from the active tab of selected browsers
In Settings → Desktop App → Meeting popup you can:
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Automatically detect meetings | Master switch for ad-hoc detection | On |
| Show popup for scheduled meetings | Use calendar appointments to trigger the popup | On |
| Hide popup after starting a recording | Auto-hide the popup once recording starts | On |
| Play a sound when the popup appears | Soft two-tone chime so you don't miss it | On |
| Detect meetings from browsers | Read the active tab URL of selected browsers | Off |
When you enable browser detection for a specific browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Safari), macOS asks you to grant Automation permission. If you decline, the toggle stays off and a link in the notification opens the relevant System Settings pane.
Timing
- Scheduled meetings - The popup is eligible from 2 minutes before the appointment start time and stays available until 10 minutes after (so you still get it if you join late). Each appointment is shown at most once per app session.
- Ad-hoc detection - The detection service polls every 15 seconds (5 seconds in development builds). Once a call is detected, the popup is shown once per "meeting session"; dismissing it suppresses it for the rest of that session, and starting a recording marks the session as already handled.
- Battery-friendly throttling - When the laptop is on battery and the display is asleep or the session is locked, polling slows to once a minute (and the heavy network/URL scans are skipped entirely until you wake the screen).
- Microphone gate - In each cycle the microphone status is checked first. If the OS reports the mic as not in use, the heavy network and browser scans are skipped for that cycle (no real meeting can happen with the mic released, even if you're "muted" inside Zoom/Meet/Teams — see the warning under Audio recording).
Audio notification
When the popup appears, Bob Studio plays a short two-tone chime (~280 ms) generated locally — no network and no asset download. You can disable it from Settings → Desktop App → Meeting popup → Play a sound when the popup appears.
Detection runs entirely on your device. URLs and network connections are never sent over the internet. The microphone "in use" signal is read from macOS to confirm an actual call is happening, not just an open meeting tab.
Audio recording
The desktop app uses native audio capture for higher quality and system audio support.
What you can do
- Record microphone - Capture audio from any connected microphone
- Record system audio - Capture audio playing on your computer (meeting calls, presentations, etc.)
- Combined recording - Microphone and system audio are mixed into a single Opus-encoded file
- Reduce speaker echo - When system audio capture is available, Bob Studio uses it as a reference to reduce speaker playback leaking back into the microphone
- Recover interrupted uploads - Keep recordings safe even if the app closes, the laptop restarts, or the network is unavailable
If you prefer the raw microphone signal, you can turn off Noise and echo reduction in Settings -> Desktop App.
Bob Studio captures your microphone independently from your meeting app. Muting yourself in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, etc. only stops the outgoing stream to other participants — it does not stop Bob Studio from recording your microphone. To pause local capture, stop the Bob Studio recording (or mute the microphone at the operating-system level).
On the desktop app, recordings are written to local storage while you are recording. If the app closes unexpectedly or the upload cannot finish, Bob Studio restores the local file on the next launch and retries the upload after you sign in and select the correct workspace.
AI transcription starts only after the recording file has finished uploading successfully. If you briefly see a "waiting for audio upload" status, the recording is still safe on your device.
Permissions (macOS)
On macOS, the app requires the following permissions:
| Permission | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Required for all recordings. The app prompts you on first use. |
| Screen Recording | Required for system audio capture. Without it, only microphone audio is recorded. |
If a permission is missing, the app shows a notification with a button to open System Settings directly to the correct privacy pane.
Keychain / Credential Storage
The desktop app stores your authentication tokens securely in your operating system's native credential manager:
| Platform | Storage |
|---|---|
| macOS | Keychain |
| Windows | Credential Manager |
| Linux | Secret Service (via libsecret) |
This means your login session is protected by the same security layer that guards your other passwords and secrets on the device. Tokens are never stored in plain-text files or in the browser.
On iPhone / macOS, the system may prompt you to allow Bob Studio to access the Keychain. This is expected — tap Allow (or Always Allow) to let the app save and retrieve your login tokens securely.
Because tokens are stored in the OS keychain, your session survives app restarts and updates without requiring you to log in again.
Updates
The desktop app checks for updates periodically in the background. When an update is available, a dialog appears with options to:
- Update now - Download and install the update, then restart
- Update later - Dismiss the notification (it will appear again later)
Update checks are disabled in development mode.
Context menu
The right-click context menu is disabled in the desktop app to provide a cleaner, more native experience. Text selection is also disabled on interactive elements (buttons, labels, navigation) across both web and desktop versions.