Your client is waiting for the recording. You open the Zoom folder and find: shared_screen_with_speaker_view.mp4, audio_only.m4a, audio_transcript.vtt, meeting_saved_chat.txt. Four files with names that don't tell you which one to send. Most coaches forward the MP4 by instinct — but the MP4 isn't always what your client needs, and some of those other files are more useful than they look.
Here's what each file is for and a simple cheat sheet for which one to share.
What each Zoom recording file does
Zoom can create several different file types for a single cloud recording. The exact set depends on your account settings, but a typical coaching or consulting session produces most of these:
The video file (.mp4)
The main recording — you, your client, and anything shared on screen, all captured together. Zoom identifies it by the layout active when you hit Record — shared screen with speaker view, gallery view, and so on — and that label appears in your portal and in the filename when the recording is synced to Drive. This is the file clients want when they want to rewatch the session.
The audio-only file (.m4a)
The same conversation, without video — just the audio track. Zoom records this alongside the video when your account has it enabled. It's lighter to share than the MP4 and works on any phone or podcast app. A client who commutes or walks while replaying sessions often prefers it.
The transcript file (.vtt)
A WebVTT caption file — the spoken audio transcribed as timestamped utterance segments. It's the format that drives closed captions in video players, not the format humans read comfortably. A single thought can be split across multiple cue blocks, each with its own timestamp. Most clients won't know what to do with a .vtt file, and most can't open it cleanly without a specific video player. You'll almost never send this to a client directly.
The chat log (.txt)
Everything anyone typed in the Zoom chat window during the call, saved as plain text with timestamps and names. Useful if the chat contained links, resources, or notes that someone wrote rather than said. Short or quiet sessions often produce an empty log.
The readable transcript document (when RecordFlow archives your recordings)
This is the .vtt converted into a document a person can actually read — speaker-per-paragraph layout, rounded timestamps, speaker names bolded, without the cue-block clutter. RecordFlow renders it as a Google Doc on Google Drive, or a Word .docx on OneDrive and Dropbox (on YouTube, only the video is archived — there's no file store to put a document in). It's what you share with a client who wants to find the three minutes that mattered without scrubbing through an hour of video. On Drive, it's also what you'd add to Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) or Gemini to ask questions across a quarter of client calls — the AI workflows post goes into detail on how that works.
Which file to send your client
The main difference between the three common formats: .mp4 carries video and audio together, .m4a is audio-only, and .vtt is a raw caption text file — not a readable document. Here's the decision at a glance:
| If your client wants to… | Send them… |
|---|---|
| Rewatch the conversation | The .mp4 video |
| Re-listen without a screen | The .m4a audio file |
| Read or search the conversation | The readable transcript document |
| Retrieve links or notes from the chat | The .txt chat log |
| Import captions into a video player | The raw .vtt — uncommon |
For most one-on-one coaching or consulting sessions, the video plus the readable transcript document covers it: the MP4 for replay, the document for finding the exact moment they want to revisit without watching the whole thing again.
You don't have to explain any of this to your client. You just send the right file.
How RecordFlow fits
When RecordFlow transfers a recording from Zoom into your cloud storage, the session's files land together — video, audio track (when your Zoom account records it separately), chat log, raw .vtt, and a readable transcript document (a Google Doc on Drive, a Word document on OneDrive and Dropbox) — in one dated subfolder per session. On YouTube, it's the video alone — a channel has nowhere to put the rest.
By the time you think to share something, the recording is already in a folder you own. You open your cloud storage, find the session folder, and share from there. No download from Zoom, no re-upload, no wait. The setup guide walks through the one-time connection; the short version is 60 seconds and an account with your storage provider.
Sharing from your own cloud storage also removes a frustration that catches clients off guard: Zoom share links sometimes demand a Zoom login before the replay will open. A Drive or OneDrive link set to "Anyone with the link can view" opens directly in a browser, no Zoom account required on their end.
All your files archived automatically.
Connect Zoom to the cloud storage you own — Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox — once. Every recording lands in its own dated subfolder — video, audio, transcript document, and chat log — ready to share before your next session starts. Free to start.
