Shadow

Shadow is a bot-free AI meeting and productivity assistant for Mac, built by Taper Labs in San Francisco and led by founder and CEO Jay Song. Shadow runs natively on macOS and detects meetings at the operating system level automatically across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack huddles, Discord, or any audio source, without ever joining as a visible participant. Capture covers both audio (transcribed on-device) and on-screen content through smart screenshots taken at meaningful intervals, giving Shadow a complete record where every major competitor including Otter.ai, Fathom, Fireflies, and Granola captures audio only. Shadow 2.0 introduced autonomous Skills that execute post-meeting work automatically the moment a call ends: PDF creation, slide generation, CRM updates, follow-up email drafts, and scheduling, turning the meeting into completed tasks rather than a transcript backlog. Beyond meetings, Shadow now includes Actions: keyboard-shortcut-triggered workflows that capture voice, screen content, or selected text outside of meetings and turn it into emails, notes, code, or any custom output. Voice Typing converts speech into clean text in any text field on your Mac. Every Skill (both Meeting Skills and Action Skills) is fully customizable through a prompt, context source, and output destination, letting users build their own workflows without code. This positions Shadow as a broader AI productivity interface rather than a meeting-only tool. Integration coverage is Zapier-first rather than native: Shadow exports natively to Markdown folders (Obsidian-compatible) and uses Zapier webhooks to connect to Notion, Slack, Linear, custom CRMs, and any webhook endpoint. Over 100 languages are supported with real-time speaker labelling. Named gaps: Shadow has no native two-way CRM integration with Salesforce or HubSpot; the platform is Mac-only with no Windows or mobile support; there is no team collaboration layer for shared meeting libraries or org-wide search; and Zapier webhooks require a separate Zapier subscription for advanced automation. The homepage notes "App context, integrations, more on the way," indicating expansion is planned. Pricing verified live on shadow.do/pricing as of June 2026. Free tier at $0 includes unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording, and unlimited smart screenshots with no meeting count cap, plus 2 weeks of Plus features free with no card required. Plus at $8 per month (monthly billing confirmed; annual pricing toggle available) unlocks unlimited Action Skills, unlimited AI Meeting Notes, unlimited Meeting Skills, and unlimited AI Chat. At $8 per month, Shadow is the most affordable paid AI meeting assistant in the category (Fathom Premium $15/mo, Otter Pro $16.99/mo, Fireflies Pro $10/mo annual). Privacy is a core differentiator: transcription happens on-device by default, audio never leaves the Mac, Skills only hit LLM APIs when triggered, and neither Shadow nor its providers use user data for model training. Shadow is not the right fit for Windows-heavy organisations: the platform is Mac-only with no Windows client, browser extension, or mobile app, which excludes the majority of enterprise environments. Teams needing enterprise compliance documentation will face friction: Shadow holds no first-party SOC 2 certification and no public security or trust page exists; procurement teams requiring vendor-confirmed SOC 2 should use Fathom (SOC 2 Type II confirmed) or Fireflies (SOC 2 Type II confirmed) instead. Organisations needing deep native CRM sync with automatic field population in Salesforce or HubSpot should evaluate Fireflies.ai (from $10/mo annual) or Gong, which provide direct CRM integrations rather than Zapier webhook-based connections. Current state Q2 2026: Shadow 2.0 launched on May 6, 2026, followed by a Product Hunt launch on May 18, 2026 that earned 222 upvotes, 23 reviews at 4.9 stars, and 1,700 followers. The platform has evolved from a passive meeting note-taker to an active AI productivity interface covering meetings, voice typing, keyboard-triggered Actions, and custom Skills. The free tier includes unlimited transcription and recording with no lifetime meeting cap. G2 presence is early at 5 reviews at 4.6 stars. No MCP server has been announced as of this audit.