Meet with anyone. Record everyone. Keep it all on your Mac.
p2p.video is free, open-source video calling that you host yourself. Guests open a link in their browser and they're in. When you press record, every person is captured on their own device at full quality, on separate tracks, and the files come home to your Mac.
Free, AGPL-3.0. For Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later. Guests can use any modern browser.
A real p2p.video call, recording. The people are illustrated stand-ins for camera feeds.
Your Mac is the meeting room
There's no p2p.video server in the middle. The call runs between your guests' browsers and your Mac, and every recording travels the same short path home.
- AdaRecordingChrome on a laptop
- RuthRecordingSafari on an iPhone
- LenaRecordingFirefox on a desktop
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Run it on your Mac
p2p.video lives in your menu bar. Rooms, recordings and settings stay on this Mac.
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Share a link
Private to your Tailscale network, or public so anyone can ask to join. Drop it into a calendar invite.
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Guests join in the browser
Chrome, Safari or Firefox, on a computer or a phone. No account, nothing to install. You let them in from the waiting room.
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Press record
Each device records itself, untouched by call quality, and uploads while you talk. If a tab crashes, the upload picks up where it stopped.
Everything you expect from a meeting
Use it for the weekly sync, not just the podcast. Recording is a switch you turn on inside a call.
Rooms with links that keep working
One reusable link per show or team, plus instant meetings. Rotate or revoke a link any time.
Waiting room and host controls
Admit, lock the room, mute or remove someone.
Chat, raised hands and reactions
Late joiners see the chat history.
Screen sharing
A screen, window or tab, with its sound when the browser allows it.
Grid, speaker and pinned views
Plus Meet's keyboard shortcuts.
Live captions with real names
Transcribed on your Mac by Apple's on-device speech engine, never in a cloud.
Background blur and noise suppression
Processed on each person's device.
Calendar invites
Schedule a meeting and send an invite for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar. No calendar login needed.
Holds up on real networks
Quality adapts to each connection, and calls reconnect after a drop.
Then press record
Riverside-style recording without Riverside's servers. Nobody's take depends on their Wi-Fi: the call can stutter while the recording stays clean.
A separate track for every person On their device
Camera video plus uncompressed WAV audio, recorded in each guest's browser, then uploaded to your Mac.
Uploads while you talk
Chunks are saved on the guest's device first. A closed tab or a crash resumes instead of losing the take.
Screen shares as their own angle
With shared audio as a separate file.
Your phone as a second camera
Scan a QR code and your phone joins as an extra angle, recorded like everything else.
Pre-flight check
Storage, devices, connection and headphones, before you hit record.
Teleprompter
A script per room, read near the camera, scrolled by the host.
Branding and lower thirds
Show name, logo, accent colour and a title for each guest.
Producer seat
Someone can run the show from inside the call without being recorded.
Record-solo links
Send a link and a guest records on their own, no call needed.
Livestream New
To YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, LinkedIn or any RTMP server, several at once.
Transcripts with exact speaker names
Made on your Mac from each person's own track, so nobody is mislabelled.
Hand-offs, not lock-in
Send a take to Minutes, a Parachute notes vault, or an AI clip editor that reads the same files.
What one take leaves on your Mac
Original files, conformed tracks and timelines that open in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. Every track is placed on the timeline and checked for sync.
Episode 12 with Ada/ video/ ada_camera.mov ruth_camera.mov ruth_phone.mov lena_screen.mov audio/ ada_mic.wav uncompressed, 48 kHz ruth_mic.wav lena_mic.wav take_01_multicam.fcpxml Final Cut Pro take_01_premiere.xml Premiere Pro, Resolve transcript/ transcript.srt transcript.md manifest.json
Yours, start to finish
No account
Not for you, not for your guests. A name and a link are enough.
No subscription
There's no server of ours to pay for, so there's nothing to charge for. No paid tier, no recording limits beyond your disk.
Media stays on your machines
Calls, recordings, captions and transcripts move between your guests' devices and your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to us, because there is no us in the path.
Open source
Licensed AGPL-3.0. Read it, build it, change it. If you run a modified version for others, share your changes too.
How it compares
An honest look, including what p2p.video doesn't do yet.
Swipe the table sideways to see Google Meet and Riverside.
| Feature | p2p.video | Google Meet | Riverside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the call and recordings live | Your Mac | Google's servers and Drive | Riverside's servers |
| Account for the host | No p2p.video account. A free Tailscale account for remote guests | Google account | Riverside account |
| Guests install anything | No, a browser link | No, a browser link | No, a browser link |
| Price | Free | Free tier, paid plans | Free tier, paid plans |
| Group calls, chat, screen share, waiting room | Yes | Yes | Yes, built around recording |
| Separate full-quality track per person, recorded locally | Yes, video plus WAV | No, one mixed recording | Yes |
| Live captions | Yes, on your Mac | Yes, in Google's cloud | Transcripts after recording |
| Editor timelines (Resolve, Premiere, Final Cut) | Yes | No | Track downloads and integrations |
| AI editing and clips | Hand-off to an open-source clip editor, early | No | Yes, built in |
| Breakout rooms, polls, whiteboard | Not planned yet | Yes | No |
| Native mobile app | Coming next for iOS. Phones join in the browser today | Yes | Yes |
| Host on Windows or Linux | Not yet, Mac only | Any browser | Any browser |
| Track record | New. Version 1.0 | Years, at huge scale | Years |
| Source code | Open, AGPL-3.0 | Closed | Closed |
Meet and Riverside change often; this reflects our understanding in October 2026 and is not about any particular paid plan. Spotted something out of date? Open an issue on GitHub.
Questions
Do I need Tailscale?
You do, as the host, if anyone joins from another device. Tailscale gives your Mac a private web address with a real certificate, without opening ports on your router or renting a server. A free personal account is enough, and the Mac app walks you through it.
Your guests don't need Tailscale. Turn on a public link (Tailscale Funnel) and anyone with the link can ask to join from their browser. People already on your Tailscale network can use a private link instead.
Do guests have to install anything?
No. They open the link, check their camera and microphone, type a name and wait for you to let them in. Chrome gives the best results; Safari and Firefox are supported.
Does it work on Windows or Linux?
Guests can join from any system with a modern browser. Hosting needs a Mac with Apple Silicon running macOS 14 or later. The server is written in Go, so other hosts are possible later, but they aren't built or tested yet.
What about iPhone and Android?
Guests can join from Safari on an iPhone, and you can scan a QR code to add your phone as an extra camera. A native iOS companion app is coming next. Android browsers haven't been tested yet.
Is it really free?
Yes. p2p.video is open source under the AGPL-3.0 and runs on hardware you already own. There's no paid tier and no hosted service behind it, so there's nothing to bill you for.
What gets recorded, and where does it go?
Nothing is recorded until the host presses Record, and everyone in the call sees a banner while it's on. Each person's browser then records their own camera and microphone, saves the pieces on their device and uploads them to the host's Mac. That's the only place they go.
Live captions and transcripts are made on the host's Mac. A livestream goes only to the destinations you add. More in the privacy notes.
How many people can join?
It's built for small groups: a show with guests, a team meeting. Calls are tested with four people, and quality steps down gracefully as more join. Your Mac's upload speed is the real limit.
How finished is it?
It's new. Every feature on this page is built and covered by automated tests with real browsers, and the core path (calling, local recording, upload and editor export) has run on real Macs and iPhones. Some pieces are still waiting for wider real-world use, such as streaming to each platform and long sessions on busy networks. The project's status page lists exactly what has and hasn't been tried.
Host your first call today
One app for your Mac. Your guests only need the link.
Version 1.0.0, 51 MB. Checksums and past versions
Apple Silicon (M1 or later), macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Signed and notarized by Apple.
Open the disk image
Drag p2p.video into Applications and open it. It appears in your menu bar.
Choose how guests join
The setup connects Tailscale and asks whether links should be private or public. You see every change before it's made.
Start a meeting
Copy the link, send it, and let people in. Press record when you're ready.