Teams Meeting Recap 2026: Using Video Highlights and Your Own AI Templates

You come out of an important meeting and you know the feeling: three pages of notes and somewhere in the middle of them the decision your colleague will ask about tomorrow. Write the recap? That is another twenty minutes gone.

Microsoft Teams tackled this problem with Intelligent Recap. In late 2025 and 2026 Microsoft added two features that noticeably change the recap workflow: Video Recap and custom AI templates for the notes.

In this post I show you what these two features can do and how to build them into your working day, step by step.

What is Video Recap?

Video Recap turns your meeting recording into short, narrated video highlights: the key points with short excerpts from the meeting. Copilot analyses the transcript, picks out topics, decisions and discussion points and combines clips, captions and an AI voice. According to Microsoft Support, the individual clips typically last 20 to 40 seconds. Copilot does not duplicate the video, it draws on the recording stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. 📹

Microsoft rolled out Video Recap from April 2026, initially for English-language meetings only (message MC1261588). Since late September 2026, support for 23 languages has been rolling out, German included (message MC1479506).

Requirements: a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, a meeting of 10 to 90 minutes, recorded and transcribed with cloud recording, plus Teams for Windows, Mac or the web. According to Microsoft, no admin action is needed, the feature is on by default for eligible users.

Step 1: record the meeting

Video Recap needs a recording with a transcript. Here is how you start it. 🎬

1. During the meeting, click More (the three dots) in the meeting controls.
2. Choose Record and transcribe and then Start recording.
3. Teams confirms the recording. All participants are notified.
4. After the meeting, the recording is saved to OneDrive or SharePoint.

Tip: in the meeting options you can turn on automatic recording. Agree with your team beforehand which meetings you record.

Step 2: watch the Video Recap

Here is how you find Video Recap. 🗂️

1. After the meeting, open the meeting chat and select Recap. Alternatively, open the past meeting in the Teams calendar and select the recap view.
2. Click Video recap in the upper-left area of the recap page.
3. Watch the video. You can pause and skip forward.

There is one Video Recap per meeting and it is the same for all eligible users. Anyone with access to the recap can also see the video, within existing permissions. According to Microsoft, the video cannot be edited. 🌍

Step 3: set up custom AI templates

Since December 2025 you can customise the AI notes in the recap (roadmap). Microsoft names ready-made options such as Speaker Summary and Executive Summary. You can also save your own templates with a simple instruction. 📋

Speaker Summary: summarises each participant’s contributions separately.

Executive Summary: condenses the meeting down to what matters, such as outcomes and next steps.

Your own template: you give Copilot a free-form instruction and save it.

Here is how you set up a template. ⚙️

1. Open the recap of a meeting that has finished, in Teams for Windows or Mac.
2. In the AI notes, open the template selection. Depending on the version the entry is named slightly differently.
3. Pick a ready-made template or create your own.
4. For your own template: type your instruction, for example «Summarise the decisions in five bullet points and name the person responsible for each».
5. Save the template so you can pick it again for the next meeting. 🔄

Step 4: pass the results on

According to Microsoft Support, you currently cannot share the Video Recap separately. It is, however, available to everyone who is allowed to see the recap. For the AI notes, proceed like this. 🔗

1. Copy the notes or the tasks from the recap.
2. Post them in the meeting chat, so all participants find them in the same place as the recap.
3. Check names, figures and responsibilities first. The AI notes are a draft, not minutes.

Practical tip: build a template library

For every meeting type, write down one template instruction that has proven itself. For client meetings, list client requests and next steps. For weeklies, summarise projects and responsibilities. Save them as your own templates, so you do not have to type them again every time. 💡

Conclusion

Video Recap and custom AI templates are the biggest practical improvements to Intelligent Recap since it launched. Since late September 2026, Video Recap also works for German-language meetings. Try it now: record your next meeting of 10 to 90 minutes and test both features. 🚀