Google's Foresight app takes meeting notes without the internet

Most AI meeting note-takers send your audio to a cloud server. Google's newest one is built to work with the Wi-Fi off. Here is what Google released, what it can do, and what we don't know yet.

What Google released

According to TechCrunch, Google has released a Mac app called Google AI Edge Foresight, a meeting note-taker that competes with Granola. TechCrunch describes it as "local-first". The app can run completely offline using models on the computer itself.

Platform: Mac only for now. Google's FAQ says it is optimized for Apple Silicon.
Price and regions: not stated in the report.
Purpose: TechCrunch reads it as a showcase for Google's small Gemma models, which are designed to run on a device instead of in a data center.

What it can do

Per TechCrunch's description of the app:

Transcribes meetings, including in-person ones, not just video calls.
Shows two sets of notes side by side: your own shorthand on one side and AI-written notes on the other. You can type your own notes while it transcribes.
Answers questions about the meeting through a chat assistant powered by Gemma 4, and lets you read the full transcript.
Builds a knowledge base from files you add, such as PDFs, Google Docs, Microsoft Office files, Markdown, plain text and web bookmarks. The app can then raise relevant points from those files while the meeting is happening.

InteractiveA meeting with Foresight, step by stepTap a step, or use Next to walk through it.

Feed it your files Add PDFs, Google Docs, Office files, Markdown, text or bookmarks before the meeting. They become a knowledge base the app can draw on.
It transcribes the room Foresight transcribes the meeting, including in-person conversations, on your Mac.
You write, it writes A split view shows your own shorthand next to the AI-generated notes, so you can keep typing while it listens.
It raises related points When the conversation touches something in your files, the app can answer questions about it in real time.
Chat with the meeting Afterwards you can read the transcript or ask a Gemma 4-powered assistant about what was said.

Source: TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026. Features as described by Google; not independently tested.

How "offline" works

TechCrunch says the app runs on an on-device model it names as EmbeddingGemma 2, with 740 million parameters. That is tiny next to frontier models, which is what lets it run on a laptop.

TechCrunch also points out an inconsistency: the assistant is described as Gemma 4-powered, while the model named is EmbeddingGemma. The report doesn't resolve which model does what.

What is still unclear

Data handling: the app can work offline, but the report doesn't say what, if anything, leaves the device when you are online.
Quality: there is no hands-on test of transcription accuracy or note quality yet.
Staying power: Google's earlier offline dictation app, released in April, stayed experimental, according to the TechCrunch author.

Why it matters

Meeting note-takers have become a crowded category. TechCrunch notes that Wispr and Calendly recently launched their own, and that Superhuman bought the note-taker Fathom.

A tool that works fully on your own machine answers the most common objection to these apps: recording a confidential meeting onto someone else's server. That is our read, not Google's claim. If you handle client calls, legal or medical conversations, wait for independent tests of what stays on the device before you rely on it.

Try it sensibly: run it on a low-stakes internal meeting first, compare its notes with your own, and check your company's recording-consent rules before using any note-taker.

Sources

Google releases a new local-first Granola competitor, TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026