| Primary focus | Real-time assistance plus post-meeting notes | Meeting capture, transcription, summaries and follow-up |
| Meeting presence | Runs on your device without joining as a visible participant | Offers bot and newer bot-free capture modes; availability varies by platform and device |
| During the meeting | Live suggestions, fact-checking and explanations | Live summary and private scratch pad in the newer experience |
| After the meeting | Transcript, summary, decisions, action items and Ask AI | Recordings, transcripts, summaries, action items, follow-up emails and Ask Fathom on eligible plans |
| In-person use | Designed for mobile and face-to-face conversations | Fathom offers an iOS app for in-person recording |
| Audio approach | No stored raw audio | Recording and storage are central features; transcript-only and audio-only modes are also available in Fathom 3.0 |