himala Review: 47 Meetings Later, Here's What Nobody Tells You

I’ve been testing AI meeting assistants for two years. Most of them blur together—slightly different UIs, nearly identical features, the same basic promise of “never take notes again.”

himala is the first one that made me rethink what these tools should actually do.

Why Most Meeting Assistant Reviews Are Useless

Here’s what every review tells you: “himala transcribes meetings and creates summaries.”

Yeah. So does every other tool in this category. That’s table stakes. That’s like reviewing a car and saying “it has four wheels and an engine.”

What I wanted to know after 6 weeks and 47 meetings: Does this actually change how I work, or is it just another tab I forget to check?

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What himala Actually Does (Beyond the Marketing)

Let me walk you through a real Tuesday morning.

9:47 AM – I have a call with a client at 10:00. I’ve spoken to them maybe four times over the past year. I vaguely remember discussing a project pivot, but the details are fuzzy.

9:48 AM – I open himala. Without searching for anything, it shows me:

• Summary of our last three conversations
• The email thread where they mentioned budget concerns
• A Slack message from my colleague about their technical requirements
• Three open action items I apparently promised to follow up on

9:52 AM – I scan the context. One of those action items was important. I would have forgotten it completely.

10:00 AM – I join the call prepared. I reference the budget concern from our February discussion. The client is visibly impressed that I remembered.

That’s the product. The transcription afterward is nice. The context beforehand is the actual value.

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The Context Engine: How It Actually Works

himala connects to:

• Gmail – Pulls relevant email threads
• Google Calendar – Knows who you’re meeting
• Slack – Surfaces related discussions
• Google Drive – Finds shared documents
• Past himala meetings – Your own conversation history

When you have a meeting scheduled, it cross-references the attendees against all these sources and shows you what’s relevant.

What It Surfaces Well

• Previous meetings with the same people
• Email threads from the past 6 months
• Documents you’ve collaborated on
• Explicit action items from past conversations

What It Misses

• Context from tools it doesn’t integrate with (Notion, Linear, etc.)
• Nuanced relationship dynamics
• Things you discussed in person without recording

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The Recording Experience

During the actual meeting, himala works like other tools in this category—but with one key difference.

Bot vs. No Bot

You get two options:

1. Background recording – Captures audio from your device. Nobody sees anything. No bot joins.
2. Bot recording – A visible participant joins your call.

Most of my meetings use background recording. It’s less invasive, and clients don’t ask questions. For internal team calls where everyone knows we record, the bot is fine.

Transcription Quality

Tested across 47 meetings with varying audio conditions:

Condition	Accuracy
Clear audio, single speaker	97%
Clear audio, multiple speakers	94%
Video call with compression artifacts	91%
Heavy accents	88%
Background noise	82%

Comparable to Otter.ai and better than most EU alternatives. Speaker identification is good but not perfect—it occasionally confuses voices with similar tones.

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Post-Meeting Features

After the call ends, himala generates:

The Summary

Usually accurate. Captures main discussion points and decisions. Occasionally misses nuance—a tentative “maybe we could…” sometimes becomes a definitive “agreed to…”

My workflow: Skim the summary, edit anything wrong, then share with attendees. Takes 2 minutes.

Action Items

This is where it shines. himala catches implicit commitments better than I expected.

When someone says “I’ll send that over by Friday,” it logs it. When I say “let me check on that,” it logs it. When someone asks “can you loop in marketing?” it logs it.

Follow-Up Email Drafts

himala writes a suggested follow-up email based on the meeting content.

Is it perfect? No. It’s a starting point. I edit maybe 40% of the text before sending. But it gets the structure right—thanking for time, summarizing key points, listing next steps.

Time saved per meeting: ~5 minutes.

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What’s Missing

Microsoft 365 Integration

If you live in Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive, himala’s context engine is hobbled. They’ve announced Microsoft support is coming, but as of January 2026, it’s not here.

This is a dealbreaker for enterprise environments. If your company is Microsoft-first, wait for the integration or look at Jamie instead.

In-Person Meeting Recording

himala is online-only. If you have in-person meetings you want to record, you need a different tool (Jamie handles this well) or a separate voice recorder.

Languages

40+ languages for transcription, but the context engine and summaries work best in English and German. French and Spanish support is decent. Other languages are hit-or-miss.

Free Tier

There isn’t one. 7-day trial, then €14.99/month. If you need to test extensively before committing, that window is tight.

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Pricing Breakdown

Plan	Price	What You Get
Starter	€14.99/mo	Full features, single user
Pro	€19.99/mo	Team features, analytics, API
Enterprise	Custom	SSO, admin controls, SLAs

Value assessment: At 15 meetings/month, that’s €1 per meeting. If the context and follow-up features save you 10 minutes per meeting, you’re paying €6/hour for time savings. That’s a good deal for most knowledge workers.

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Who Should Use himala

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The Competition

How does himala stack up?

Feature	himala	Otter.ai	Jamie	tl;dv
Pre-meeting context	✅ Best	❌	❌	❌
Transcription quality	Good	Excellent	Good	Good
Bot-free option	✅	❌	✅	❌
EU data residency	✅ DE	❌ US	✅ DE	⚠️ EU
Free tier	❌	✅	⚠️	✅
In-person support	❌	❌	✅	❌
Price	€14.99	$16.99	€24	€20

The trade-off is clear: himala is the only tool doing meaningful pre-meeting preparation. If that’s valuable to you, nothing else competes. If you just want transcription, Otter.ai is better and has a free tier.

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Security & Compliance Deep Dive

For those who need to justify this to IT:

Aspect	Details
Company	himala GmbH, Hamburg, Germany
Data location	Frankfurt, Germany (EU only)
Certifications	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CASA
Sub-processors	EU-only, no US involvement
Data retention	User-controlled deletion
Encryption	AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit

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My Setup After 6 Weeks

Here’s how I actually use himala now:

Before external calls: Check the context brief 5 minutes before joining. Note any open action items I need to address.

During calls: Background recording, never the bot. I don’t tell clients I’m recording unless they ask or it’s legally required.

After calls: Skim the summary, fix any errors, share with attendees. Check the action items, add due dates in my task manager.

Before follow-up meetings: himala shows me what I said I’d do last time. I make sure it’s done before I join.

Total daily time spent in himala: ~15 minutes Estimated daily time saved: ~45 minutes

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The Verdict

What Would Make It a 10

1. Microsoft 365 integration
2. A limited free tier for evaluation
3. Notion/Linear/Asana connections
4. Better multi-language context features

Should You Buy It?

Yes, if:

• You have repeat meetings with the same people
• You use Gmail/Google Workspace
• Preparation quality impacts your outcomes
• You’re comfortable with €15/month

No, if:

• You’re Microsoft-first
• You mainly take one-off meetings
• You need extensive free evaluation time
• In-person recording is essential

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Try It Yourself

himala.ai – 7-day free trial, full features.

My suggestion: Schedule at least 10 meetings during your trial. The value isn’t obvious after 2 meetings—it compounds as himala learns your relationship context.

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Related reading:

• EU Meeting Assistants Compared
• Jamie vs himala
• Why EU Software Matters

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Last updated: January 2026. I have no affiliate relationship with himala—this is an independent review.