Meeting Detection in Automatic Time Tracking: How It Works

Meetings are one of the hardest things to track manually. You join a call, get absorbed, and forget to start a timer. Or you started one but forgot to stop. Automatic meeting detection solves that by recognizing when you’re in Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Teams, or similar—and logging it without you doing a thing.

How Meeting Detection Works

Time tracking apps monitor your active windows or system state. When they see:

• Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Slack in a call
• A window title like “Meeting” or “In a call”
• Or system indicators (e.g., camera/mic in use)

…they create a time block for that meeting. Start and end are inferred from when the app detected the call. No manual start/stop.

What Gets Logged

Typically: app name, duration, and sometimes the meeting title (if the window exposes it). “Zoom - Project kickoff” or “Slack - Team sync.” You or an AI can then categorize: “Client call,” “Internal standup,” “1:1.”

Privacy Considerations

Meeting titles can include client names, project details, or sensitive topics. If your tracker sends data to the cloud, that information leaves your machine. Local-first trackers keep meeting logs on your Mac only—no sync, no third-party access. For professionals with confidential calls, that distinction matters.

Accuracy and Edge Cases

Meeting detection isn’t perfect. Quick hangups might not register. Browser-based Meet vs. the Meet app can behave differently. Some tools are more reliable than others. Still, it’s far better than relying on memory or manual timers.

Why It Matters

Meetings consume a huge share of knowledge workers’ time. Without tracking, you might guess 20% of your week. With automatic detection, you get the real number. That data informs calendar hygiene, meeting culture, and whether “focus time” is actually achievable.

If you’re evaluating automatic time trackers, meeting detection is a feature worth checking—along with where that meeting data gets stored.