Zoom Integration

Zoom is one of the most common places customer conversations happen. Brief connects to your Zoom Cloud Recordings so the themes, pain points, and feature requests buried in those calls surface without anyone re-watching a recording.

This page covers the whole lifecycle: adding the Zoom integration, using it, and removing it.

What does Brief capture?

• Meeting transcripts — Brief downloads the VTT transcript Zoom generates for a Cloud Recording and reads it to extract signals. Brief does not store the transcript file itself; it stays in Zoom.
• Recording metadata — meeting topic and start time
• Research signals — customer pain points, feature requests, validation, and churn risk that AI agents extract from the transcript, each carrying verbatim quotes from the call

Brief reads only recordings that belong to the account you connect — it uses your own per-user Zoom authorization, not an account-wide admin connection.

How Brief uses your Zoom permissions

Brief requests exactly three Zoom scopes, and no others:

To be explicit about the limits of that access:

• All three permissions are read-only. Brief does not create, modify, or delete Zoom users, meetings, recordings, or files.
• Each user authorizes their own Zoom account. This is a standard per-user OAuth connection, not an account-wide administrator install.
• Brief only reads what it needs to import Cloud Recording transcripts and the meeting topic and start time that go with them.
• Brief requests no scopes for chat, contacts, calendars, phone, webinars, or meeting control.

Why should I connect Zoom to Brief?

Turn calls into research automatically

Sales calls, support calls, and customer interviews recorded in Zoom become research signals without anyone writing up notes.

One-click authorization

Brief publishes its own Zoom Marketplace app, so connecting is standard OAuth — no API keys, no admin setup, no custom app to register.

Works alongside other meeting tools

If your team already uses Fathom, Granola, or Fireflies for some calls and Zoom's native recording for others, connect all of them — Brief deduplicates insights across sources.

How do I set up this integration?

Steps

1. Sign in to Brief and go to Integrations
2. Find Zoom and click Connect
3. Authorize Brief in Zoom's OAuth flow — each person connects their own Zoom account
4. Brief checks that your Zoom plan supports Cloud Recording
5. Done! Brief starts syncing your recent recordings

Before you connect

Brief needs two things on the Zoom side to actually produce transcripts:

• A plan with Cloud Recording — Zoom's Basic (free) tier doesn't include cloud recording, so there's nothing for Brief to read. A paid plan with cloud recording enabled is required.
• "Create audio transcript" turned on — this Zoom recording setting is off by default and isn't retroactive, so older recordings made before you enable it won't have a transcript. Turn it on in Zoom's recording settings before your next call.

How to use Zoom with Brief

Connecting is only the first step. Here is the full path from a Zoom call to a research signal you can act on in Brief.

1. Turn on the Zoom settings. In Zoom, enable Cloud Recording and Create audio transcript in your recording settings. Do this before the meeting — Zoom does not generate transcripts retroactively.
2. Record the meeting to the cloud. During the meeting, choose Record to the Cloud. Local recordings stay on the recorder's computer, are never sent to Zoom's API, and cannot be imported.
3. Wait for Zoom to finish processing. Zoom produces the transcript as a separate step after the recording itself. Check the recording in Zoom to confirm the transcript exists before expecting signals in Brief.
4. Wait for Brief's next sync. Brief polls Zoom on a regular cadence rather than receiving an instant push, so the import is not immediate. On each run Brief looks back over the last 90 days of Cloud Recordings.
5. Open the meeting's signals in Brief. Go to User Intelligence and select the Research Signals tab.
6. Read what Brief extracted. Each research signal shows the theme Brief identified, its signal type (feature request, pain point, validation, or churn risk), and the verbatim quotes pulled from the call, with the meeting topic and date attached as the source. Open a signal to see its full detail view.
7. Act on the signal. From a signal's detail page you can set its urgency, change its status, and delete it with Delete Signal. Signals also become part of your workspace context, so you can ask about them in Brief chat.

What to expect

• A meeting appears only after Zoom finishes processing its Cloud Recording transcript. Until the transcript exists, there is nothing for Brief to read.
• Locally recorded meetings are never imported. Only Cloud Recordings are visible to Zoom's API.
• A recording with no transcript produces no transcript-derived signals. If "Create audio transcript" was off when the call was recorded, that call cannot generate signals.
• The import is not immediate. Brief checks for new recordings periodically.
• Not every recorded meeting produces signals. Brief classifies each call first and only extracts customer voice from customer-facing conversations — discovery calls, sales demos, user research interviews, support calls, onboarding, renewals, and churn conversations. Internal calls such as standups, team syncs, internal strategy and roadmap discussions, vendor demos, and job interviews are skipped by design, so they will not appear as research signals.
• A customer call that contains no clear themes produces no signal. Brief only writes a signal when it can attach verbatim supporting quotes.

Disconnect or remove the Zoom integration

You manage the Zoom connection from Brief. Disconnecting in Brief is the removal path, and it is sufficient on its own. Because the connection is a standard OAuth grant, it also appears in your Zoom account's authorized apps, so the optional Zoom-side step below is available if you want to clear it there too.

From Brief

This is the removal path. It disables the Zoom credential Brief stores and stops all access and importing.

1. Sign in to Brief.
2. Open Integrations.
3. Find Zoom.
4. Click Disconnect — either from the actions menu on the Zoom card, or the Disconnect button on your Personal Connection row.
5. Confirm Disconnect in the dialog.

From Zoom (optional)

You do not need this step. Disconnecting in Brief already ends Brief's access. If you also want to clear the authorization from your Zoom account's app list:

1. Sign in to Zoom and open your installed apps at marketplace.zoom.us/user/installed.
2. Find Brief in the list.
3. Remove it using the app's action control, and confirm.

Zoom labels this screen differently depending on which Marketplace experience your account uses — currently My library, and Manage → Added Apps in the classic view. The link above goes to the right screen either way.

What happens after removal

Brief stops accessing Zoom. Once you disconnect in Brief, the stored credential is disabled: Brief stops calling Zoom's API and stops importing new recordings and transcripts.

Reconnecting requires authorizing again. There is no way to resume a removed connection silently — you go back through Zoom's OAuth screen and grant the three scopes again.

Disconnecting in Brief is what starts the deletion clock. Clearing the authorization from your Zoom account does not by itself tell Brief to retire the connection, so disconnect in Brief to start the retention periods below.

Imported Zoom data is deleted within 30 days of that disconnect. Recording metadata and transcript-derived content imported from Zoom are treated as Integration Data under Brief's privacy policy and are deleted within 30 days of disconnecting the integration.

Research signals already extracted are kept. Signals Brief generated from your calls are workspace data, not Zoom data — they remain in your Brief workspace after you disconnect so your research history is not lost. They are retained while your account is active and deleted within 30 days of an account deletion request.

Two qualifications apply to both deadlines, per the privacy policy:

• Brief may retain specific information beyond these periods where required for legal compliance, dispute resolution, or enforcement of its agreements.
• Backup copies may persist for up to 90 days after removal from active systems.

See Data Retention and Your Rights for the governing terms, which take precedence over this summary.

To delete signals sooner, you have two options:

• Delete them yourself in Brief: open User Intelligence → Research Signals, open a signal, and click Delete Signal.
• Request deletion: email privacy@briefhq.ai to request deletion of your personal information or of your entire account.

Full details are in Brief's Privacy Policy, including retention periods by data category and how to exercise your access, correction, and deletion rights.

Common Issues

"Your current plan can't generate cloud recording transcripts"

Cause: Your Zoom account is on a plan without Cloud Recording, or Cloud Recording isn't enabled on your account Fix: Upgrade to a Zoom plan tier with Cloud Recording, or ask your Zoom admin to enable it, then reconnect.

"No recordings synced"

Cause: No meetings have been recorded to the cloud since you connected Fix: Confirm you're recording to the cloud (not locally) in Zoom, and give the sync a few minutes to pick up new meetings.

"Missing transcripts"

Cause: "Create audio transcript" was off when the meeting was recorded Fix: Turn on Create audio transcript in Zoom's recording settings. It only applies going forward — past recordings won't retroactively get a transcript.

"The recording synced but there are no signals"

Cause: Brief classified the call as an internal or non-customer conversation, or the transcript contained no themes Brief could support with verbatim quotes Fix: This is expected for standups, internal planning, vendor demos, and interviews. Customer-facing calls with substantive discussion are the ones that produce signals.

"Connection needs to be renewed"

Cause: Your Zoom authorization expired or was revoked Fix: Reconnect from Integrations — Brief will prompt you to re-authorize.

What's Next?

• Connect Fathom — another meeting tool option
• Connect Granola — use alongside Zoom
• Connect Webex Meetings — if your team also meets on Webex
• View Integrations — see all available integrations