How to Split Recorded Meetings for Meeting Notes & Summaries

Recording meetings has become standard practice in remote work environments. Whether you're using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Webex, splitting long meeting recordings into manageable segments makes it significantly easier to create meeting notes, transcribe discussions, and extract action items. This guide shows you how to efficiently split meeting recordings for better productivity.

Why Split Meeting Recordings?

Long meeting recordings present several challenges. A 2-hour all-hands meeting or board presentation becomes difficult to navigate, transcribe, or reference later. By splitting recordings into topic-based or time-based segments, you gain significant advantages:

• Easier transcription - AI transcription services work better with shorter files
• Topic-based organization - Match segments to agenda items for quick reference
• Faster review - Jump directly to relevant discussions without scrubbing
• Better sharing - Send only relevant portions to team members
• Improved accuracy - Shorter segments produce more accurate AI summaries
• Storage efficiency - Archive only important segments, delete filler

Meeting Recording Formats by Platform

Different video conferencing platforms save recordings in different formats. Here's how to get your meeting audio ready for splitting:

Step-by-Step: Split Meeting Recordings with ChunkAudio

Recommended Segment Lengths by Use Case

Use Case	Recommended Length	Why
AI Transcription (Otter, Rev, etc.)	10-15 minutes	Optimal accuracy and processing speed
Manual Note-Taking	Match agenda items	Natural topic boundaries
AI Summarization (ChatGPT, Claude)	15-20 minutes	Within context limits after transcription
Action Item Extraction	Per agenda topic	Clear ownership and context
Training/Onboarding Clips	5-10 minutes	Digestible learning modules
Compliance Archival	30 minutes	Balance between granularity and file count

Workflow: From Meeting to Action Items

Here's an efficient workflow for processing meeting recordings:

Splitting for AI Transcription Services

AI transcription services like Otter.ai, Rev, Trint, and Descript have file size or duration limits. More importantly, they perform better with shorter, focused audio segments:

Why Shorter Segments Improve Transcription

• Speaker identification - AI better tracks who's speaking in shorter segments
• Context maintenance - Less drift in understanding technical terms
• Error recovery - If one segment has issues, others remain accurate
• Parallel processing - Upload multiple segments simultaneously for faster results

Optimal Settings for Popular Services

• Otter.ai - 90 minutes max, but 15-minute segments produce better results
• Rev - No hard limit, but recommends under 3 hours; split for better accuracy
• Trint - Best results with files under 30 minutes
• Descript - Handles long files but processes faster in segments
• WhisperAI (local) - 30-minute segments work well for most systems

Splitting for AI Summarization

Using ChatGPT, Claude, or other AI tools to summarize meetings? The transcription needs to fit within context limits. Here's the approach:

1. Split meeting into 15-20 minute segments
2. Transcribe each segment separately
3. Summarize each segment individually - This produces focused summaries
4. Combine summaries - Create a master summary from segment summaries

This approach works better than transcribing a 2-hour meeting and trying to summarize it all at once. The AI maintains better context and produces more actionable summaries.

Organizing Split Meeting Files

Effective file organization is crucial when you're splitting many meetings. Here's a recommended naming convention:

[Date]_[Meeting Type]_[Topic]_[Segment#].mp3

Examples:

• 2026-01-10_StandUp_Sprint-Review_01.mp3
• 2026-01-10_StandUp_Sprint-Review_02.mp3
• 2026-01-10_AllHands_Q4-Results_01.mp3
• 2026-01-10_AllHands_CEO-Update_02.mp3

Privacy and Compliance Considerations

Meeting recordings often contain sensitive information. When choosing tools to process them:

Data Handling Checklist

• Browser-based processing - Files never leave your device
• No account required - Reduces data exposure
• HTTPS encryption - Secure if upload is needed
• Clear privacy policy - Understand how data is used
• Corporate policy compliance - Check with IT/Legal if unsure

ChunkAudio meets all these criteria—your meeting audio is processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded to any server. This makes it safe for even the most confidential business recordings.

Common Meeting Types and Splitting Strategies

All-Hands / Town Hall Meetings

Usually long (1-2 hours) with multiple presenters. Split by presenter or topic section. Create separate segments for CEO update, department reports, Q&A, etc.

Sprint Retrospectives

Split into three segments: What went well, What could improve, Action items. This makes it easy to reference specific discussion areas later.

Client Calls

Split into Discovery, Solution Discussion, Next Steps. Keep segments that contain commitments or requirements for easy reference.

Board Meetings

Split by agenda item—financial review, strategic initiatives, governance, etc. Name segments clearly for compliance and archival purposes.

Training Sessions

Split into module-length segments (10-15 minutes). This creates reusable training materials from recorded sessions.