Otter will let users search Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira and Salesforce from inside the app. The feature uses the Model Context Protocol to pull contextual data into Otter’s search and assistant, and the company also refreshed its AI assistant and added botless meeting capture on Windows.

What Otter is launching

  • Otter is now an MCP (Model Context Protocol) client, letting organizations connect Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira and Salesforce and query those sources alongside Otter meeting transcripts and summaries.
  • Users can act on results directly in Otter — for example, push a meeting summary into Notion or draft an email in Gmail from the app.
  • Otter plans to add more connections soon, with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and Slack on the roadmap.

How the tech fits together

  • MCP provides a common way for AI tools to request context from other services, so Otter doesn't need bespoke integrations for each platform.
  • The protocol lets Otter pull files, tickets, CRM records and meeting conversations into search and assistant responses simultaneously.
  • The redesigned AI assistant sits persistently in the interface and is context-aware: queries on a meeting page prioritize that meeting’s content while queries in a project channel surface related Jira tickets and documents.

Meeting capture without a bot — and with one

  • Otter added botless capture (system audio recording) to its Mac app last year and now offers the same on Windows, simplifying recording without adding a bot account to calls.
  • Otter still supports the bot model: the company says many enterprise customers prefer a visible note taker that joins the meeting and shares notes with all attendees.
  • Otter CEO Sam Liang told TechCrunch enterprises often favor a joining note taker for transparency and shared access to notes.

Where Otter sits in the market

The change reflects a broader trend among meeting-assistant startups — such as Read AI, Fireflies.ai and Fathom — to move beyond raw transcripts toward cross-source search, aggregation and actionable workflows. Otter’s use of MCP aims to speed connections to multiple services while retaining enterprise features like joining calls visibly and sharing notes with attendees.

Productivity flows and user behavior

With the new search and assistant capabilities, Otter aims to reduce the friction of finding information spread across different systems and let users act on meeting information without switching apps.

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Sam Liang said enterprise customers mostly prefer a visible note taker that joins Zoom because it provides transparency and lets notes be shared with all attendees. The new search, assistant refresh and botless capture push Otter toward a broader workspace hub that surfaces meeting content alongside other corporate systems.

This article was created with AI assistance.