We’ve re-built and relabeled our AI video maker adding a host of new features including Avatars, automatic layouts, captions, titles, scenes and even b-roll.

Select AI video maker from the Home screen to get started. From here you can start generating your video by:

If you select either , or you’ll first select an Avatar to be your presenter, along with an AI speaker to voice it. If you select “Upload a file” - we’ll take you straight to generating b-roll, or auto-selecting stock media for your b-roll.

Once you’ve made your selections, the video will start generating, and you can either Export immediately, or dive in and edit it. If you’re using a pre-recorded video, but prefer an Avatar, you can always swap it out inside the project.

This tool is a great way to bring a quick idea to life, or just try out Descript’s editing features with no barrier to entry in terms of having an idea or pre-recorded material.

Development of our new Screen recorder is moving forward. This week, we’re removing the Beta label, and with it adding multitrack output for you recordings. When you hit stop, you can open the recording in a project, and you will have a separate track for each recorded input, including your camera, screen, microphone, and computer audio. This makes editing workflows much more flexible, allowing you to apply effects to elements separately, and have tight control over your layouts. If you haven’t given it a try yet, now’s a great time to start.

Even more updates are coming to the screen recorder, so stay tuned.

Back in February, we rolled out major improvements to speaker quality to our Business and Enterprise users. We have improved the quality even more and are deploying both sets of improvements to all users in the coming weeks. You should notice a higher overall audio quality with better, more natural delivery. This also means that we will soon be fully deprecating custom speakers made with our very old models. These are labeled as "Removing soon" in the AI Speakers menu in Drive view. If you’re still using one, you’ll want to create a new custom speaker with the upgraded models by 6/30/2025. You can do this by clicking the "New speaker" button in the top right of the AI speakers menu in Drive view.

Join the Descript Changelog for a look at our releases from April.

Announcing Descript Season 9, which is all about Avatars. Introducing instant text-to-video generation—no camera required. Join us live on May 6th for Descript Season 9 to see our all-new avatars in action.

There are many situations where recording on camera isn't practical or preferred. With avatars, you can create professional videos without the need for filming - now available to all Descript users.

The process is simple: write your script, select an avatar from our gallery (or create your own from an image), and generate your video. Or record your own audio. Either way, the avatar will present your content naturally with perfectly matched lip-sync.

Join CEO Andrew and the team for a live demonstration of Avatars.

We invite you to submit questions about avatars before the event, with an opportunity to ask them live on stage. If you'd like to participate, please sign up here.

We've begun our rollout of avatars. Over the next week, you'll start to see avatars mentioned on our Home screen and in the speaker label. With avatars, there's no need to stress about recording yourself for every single video you have to make. Avatars let you make video that’s just as informative and engaging—in a fraction of the time, with no recording at all.

Just write your script, select a voice from our new stock voices and then choose your avatar—from the variety of options in our gallery, or from an image you upload.

You can also start an Avatar based project from the Home screen, either by selecting Text-to-AI Video and ticking the Avatar box, or by selecting Create AI Avatar. Or just click here.

Custom avatars work best with human subject in center frame so we suggest avoiding images of animals or inanimate objects.

For more details on best practices when creating custom Avatars, our Help center has you covered.

To make Avatars even more robust, we added 13 new stock speakers that will help give your avatar just the right delivery. We've welcomed five new conversational voices, four creator-style voices, another British voice and a few others.

Say hello to the gang.

We’ve brought back the ability to import video directly from YouTube links. This is a very popular feature that we want to support long term.

For users with specific transcription needs, or who run recurring issues with some transcriptions, we’ve added a new Transcription provider selection in the Settings menu under the Advanced section. We do not recommend that most users switch this away from the Automatic setting, but in some cases it may be worthwhile to try a different option.

The options at present are:

We may add further options in the future.

Here's what's new in Rooms:

For users who have been upgraded to the new Desktop experience, we finally have a replacement for the . The new

Screen Recorder

will launch to all users on the upgraded Desktop within the next week, bringing enhanced functionality and performance to make your recording experience smoother and more versatile. This update is just the beginning, and we’re launching it in a Beta state while we make improvements and round out the feature set.

Like our web recorders, it uploads your video in the background while you record for instant playback when you hit stop.

At the moment, it does not include screen area selection, or multitrack file recordings.

Both of these features are in the works and will be added when the Screen recorder leaves Beta.

If you’re on the old Desktop, you can upgrade manually using the . By May 15th, 2025, all users will be on the new version so you might as well jump in now.

We're building a new way to use AI to edit your videos in Descript. If you want to help us break it and build it better, apply to get exclusive early access. Learn more and apply here.

You'll see some UI differences when you login.

First, you'll notice that the login URL is different: https://web.descript.com/authenticate

The new login screen looks like this:

Once you're logged in, you can select which Drive you'd like to open first using this new prompt:

This also resolves a known issue of being unable to open menus in Drive view until a Drive is selected.

The update comes with a refresh of our invite emails, which are more branded and... inviting.

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback please reach out.

We're excited to introduce a new Home screen in Drive view, making it easier than ever to start your next project. When you open Descript, you'll find a streamlined landing page with quick-start options for all your creation needs - whether you want to edit a video, make a podcast, create social clips, transcribe a file, clean up audio, or remove backgrounds.

The new Home screen is designed to help you find what you need faster, including a Recent projects view. You'll also discover our popular features front and center, including Translation & dubbing capabilities. These will rotate over time as new features are introduced.

The hope with this update is to remove the uncertainty of a blank page project and putting the full power of Descript at your fingertips from the moment you open the app. The new Home screen is rolling out to all users in version 112.

A few weeks back we created a new AI Video maker in the ChatGPT store. This tool automatically generates a video explainer on a topic of your choosing, with customizable style and tone. Now, we’ve brought this experience into the app, available from the new Home screen, so you can create narrated, illustrated video with just a few clicks. It’s a great way to experiment with the tools Descript has to offer, or make a quick piece of content for easy sharing.

We're introducing a redesigned Editor recorder experience in version 112. The recorder now lives in the play dock instead of the sidebar, making it more accessible within your workflow. When recording with an empty script, the recorder takes up your full screen for better focus. If there's content in your script, you can see it while recording - the recorder will only occupy the Scene Editor area. The redesign aims to make recording more intuitive and accessible, integrating seamlessly with your workflow while maintaining visibility of important content during recording sessions.

Stable frame is a new feature that intelligently positions the playhead to show the most representative frame when selecting scenes or layers. When clicking on scenes from the scene rail or script boundary, or layers from the canvas, the system accounts for animations and scene transitions to display the most stable and useful frame (i.e. one that is not in the middle of animating.)

These stable frames will also be used for the Scene thumbnail to make scene rail more useful as a visual representation of the storyboard or through line of your project.

This enhancement addresses a common user pain point where the playhead might land mid-animation, resulting in a confusing or unclear view of the scene.

We’ve added two new placeholder layer types to the Elements panel for Camera and Screen video. These will to help you keep your project organized as you’re assembling layouts, and make it easier to remember where you will eventually place your content.

The three placeholder layer types are now labeled:

You can adjust these layers like any other Scene element, applying animations or transitions. Once you're ready to add your media, you can do so from the Scene-editor → Add media.

Here's what's new in Rooms: