How to Stop Read AI from Joining My Meetings

You might notice that when Read AI joins a meeting, it doesn’t try to blend in. It requests permission to join, appears as a participant, and posts a message in the chat explaining what it’s doing, who invited it, and how any meeting participant can turn it off and delete the entire recording.

These signals might feel repetitive, but they’re intentional. We’ve made Read AI's presence abundantly clear because everyone in a meeting—whether they invited Read AI or not—deserves a say in whether it’s recorded. While other meeting recorders allow for more subtle recording notifications, we recognize this flexibility as both ethically and legally risky. (For context: recording without consent is illegal in at least 12 U.S. states and several countries.)

From the start, Read AI's co-founders believed that making meetings more effective shouldn’t come at the expense of privacy or control. Read AI was built to help teams work smarter—and just as importantly, to do so transparently. “You can’t build a big company without privacy at the core,” said CEO David Shim. “Eventually, it falls apart. We’re doing the hard things early—being visible, being honest—because that’s the foundation everything else rests on.”

This article walks through how to remove or turn off Read AI across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Whether you’re a Read AI user or not, you have control. Here’s how.

Managing Read’s Access to Your Meetings

How to tell who added Read AI

When Read joins a call, it posts a message in the meeting chat that includes the name of the person who added it. From there, you can ask the person directly to remove it—or refer to the options below to do it yourself.

How to prevent Read AI from joining

If you invited Read AI to a meeting but changed your mind, you can cancel its attendance before the meeting starts. Simply select the meeting in your Read Calendar and toggle off “Add Read?” at least a few minutes before the call. For recurring calls, you can disable Read AI for specific meetings without affecting the full series.

Those who didn’t invite Read AI can still prevent it from joining. If even one person says no, Read AI won’t join.

That’s how it works in Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. In Zoom, the flow is a bit different. Only the host decides whether Read AI is allowed into the meeting, but every participant can still opt out and has the ability to delete the entire recording.

If you’ve previously granted blanket permission for Read AI to record Zoom calls, you won’t see the prompt again. Otherwise, you’ll get a Zoom dialog box each time asking whether you want to approve or decline the notetaker’s request to record the meeting.

How to remove Read AI after it joins

Even if Read AI has already joined the meeting or started recording, you still have options. The meeting host can remove Read AI just like any other participant. Everyone else can simply ask Read AI to leave in the chat. 

Typing "Read Stop" in the meeting chat will prompt it to exit and generate a meeting report based on what was captured up until that point. If you’d prefer to delete the whole thing, type “Opt Out” instead. No report will be created, and nothing will be saved. These commands work at any point in the meeting.

Why We Made Read AI Easy to Remove

Some tools record meetings without asking. Others don’t give participants any way to opt out. Read AI is different—on purpose. “We’ve rejected requests to make TKTK less noticeable,” said David Shim, CEO and Co-Founder of Read AI. “We’d rather have an awkward moment now than lose trust later.”

Read AI shows up like any other participant, clearly labeled and easy to spot. It announces who added it, posts a message in the chat, and offers real-time tools to kick Read AI out or delete everything it’s recorded. 

Read AI is designed to support your work—not spy on it.

Still Have Questions? We’re Here to Help

If you’re unsure about anything related to how Read AI works—or how to remove it—our support team is just a click away. Looking for a step-by-step guide? Click here. We believe AI should be clear, respectful, and easy to control. And we’re here to make sure that’s always the case.