Free Fireflies Alternative

No Bot in Your Call. You Send the Recording.

Fireflies and Otter auto-join your calls with a notetaker bot and need calendar access. @vustScribeBot works the other way: nothing joins your meeting, nothing touches your calendar. You record it yourself, send the file, and get a transcript, summary and action items back — in Telegram, pay-per-use. If you specifically want a bot that auto-joins Zoom or Meet, that's Fireflies, not this.

Record-then-send · no calendar · free ≤5min · 2✦ for 5-20min.Record-and-send, not auto-join — the honest trade-off
No bot auto-joins your callNo calendar access, no accountFree ≤5min · 2✦ for 5-20min

VUST Scribe vs Fireflies — the honest shape

The capture method is the real difference: VUST is record-then-send (nothing joins your call), Fireflies auto-joins the live meeting. Pick by whether you want a bot in the room.
ToolCapture methodJoins your callAccountBest for
VUST (@vustScribeBot)Send the recordingNo — nothing joinsNo — just TelegramRecord-and-send notes + action items
FirefliesAuto-joins Zoom / Meet / TeamsYesYesLive capture, CRM sync, search

VUST Scribe: audio-in only, ≤20 min / 20 MB, free ≤5 min (3/day) then 2✦, auto-refund on failure. No Fireflies pricing is quoted here — check their site for current plans.

The real difference

Auto-join vs record-and-send — pick the one that fits you

Fireflies and Otter are meeting-intelligence suites: they connect to your calendar and drop a bot into your live calls to record them. That's genuinely useful for back-to-back recurring meetings — and if that's what you need, use them, this isn't it. VUST is the opposite trade-off: no bot in the room, no calendar connection, no account. You send a recording you already have and get transcript, summary and action items back, inside Telegram, paying only for what you send. Lighter, more private, and free for short clips — but no live-call capture.

No live-call joining, no calendar sync, no team workspace. If those are dealbreakers, a full suite fits better.

See the difference

The auto-join model side by side with the record-and-send model, then a real recording turned into notes.

The Fireflies/Otter model: a bot in the meeting

How that works

You connect your calendar; a notetaker bot auto-joins each Zoom/Meet/Teams call as a visible participant and records it live. It's powerful for recurring meetings — but there's a bot in the room, it needs calendar access, and it means an account and a subscription.

The VUST model instead

Nothing joins your call and nothing touches your calendar. You record the meeting yourself (or export the audio your call tool saved) and send that file to @vustScribeBot in Telegram. Back come the transcript, a summary and the action items. Record-then-send, not auto-join.

A 7-minute recording, sent to Scribe

The recording (transcript excerpt)

"...quick recap for anyone who missed it: we're going with vendor B, the contract review lands on legal this week, and Ravi's going to set up the kickoff call. That's basically it."

What Scribe returns

Summary • Decision: going with vendor B. • Contract review handed to legal this week. Action items • Legal — review the vendor B contract this week. • Ravi — set up the kickoff call. (7 minutes → 2✦, refunded automatically if it ever fails.)

02·Practical use cases

Who wants an alternative to a call-joining bot

Privacy-minded meeters

Don't want a visible notetaker bot changing how the conversation goes.

Nothing joins the call — you record it yourself and send the file afterwards.

Calendar-shy users

Won't grant a tool calendar access just for the occasional meeting.

No calendar connection and no account — your Telegram identity is the login.

Occasional, not subscription

Have a few meetings a month, not a wall of recurring calls.

Pay-per-recording in Telegram Stars instead of a monthly plan; free under 5 minutes.

In-person and ad-hoc

Record a room or a phone call where no meeting-bot could join anyway.

Any audio file works — send it, get transcript, summary and action items.

03·How it works

Record-then-send, not auto-join

01You record the meeting

Capture it yourself or export the audio your call tool saved. No bot joins the call and no calendar is connected.

02Send the file to Telegram

Forward the recording to @vustScribeBot — a voice message, audio file or video note. No account to create.

03Get notes and action items

Transcript, a summary of decisions, and the action items — in the meeting's own language. Pay only for what you send.

04·Same tool · in Telegram

Telegram

A Fireflies alternative with no bot in your call

@vustScribeBot · Send @vustScribeBot a recording and get transcript, summary and action items — no calendar, no account.

05·Quality & trust

The honest trade-off vs Fireflies

No auto-join — on purpose

Fireflies and Otter drop a bot into your live calls via calendar access. VUST does not. If a bot that auto-joins Zoom or Meet is what you need, that's Fireflies, not this.

Lighter and more private

No bot in the room, no calendar, no account, Telegram-native. The wedge is the workflow difference: record-and-send instead of a live participant bot.

Core notes, not a suite

You get transcript, summary and action items — not a live-call dashboard, CRM integrations or a team workspace. Fewer moving parts by design.

Free and refunded

Free ≤5min (3/day); 2✦ for 5-20min in Telegram Stars, refunded automatically if processing fails. Up to 20min / 20MB per file.

Frequently asked questions

Ready when you are

No bot in your call. Just send the recording.

Record-then-send instead of auto-join — no calendar access, no account, pay-per-use in Telegram. Not a fit if you need a live-call bot.