Starting today, you can try out the new Underlord, available in Labs. It’s no longer just a suite of AI tools, it’s an AI co-editor that can help you write, design, and edit your video. Just tell it what you want, and it'll make a plan and get after it. It can read your script, follow directions, offer feedback, and more. And because it's inside Descript, it has every tool it needs to help you make the video you want.

Toggle it on by visiting the Settings menu → General tab → Labs section. Or just click here.

It’s still in beta—so we’re giving you free, unlimited use. From now through the end of June, taking any AI action with the new Underlord will count against your monthly AI limit (but clicking on them yourself will).

You can find details about getting started in our Help center.

We’ve made a few improvements to the AI video maker, which you can find on the Home screen. Here’s what’s new:

You can try it right now by clicking here.

We’re using a new and improved image generator when you select “Generate an image” from the Underlord panel on the sidebar. You’ll see an overall improvement in the quality of images. This has not yet been ported over to the AI video maker, so keep in mind you’ll be seeing images generating from the older image generation model when using that tool—for the time being.

We no longer support invite links to Drive, instead we’ve improved the experience for email invites. This helps keep Drive invites more organized and easier to track whether or not they have been accepted.

We’re rolling out a fully redesigned, and reconsidered Timeline view in Labs this week. Labs is our testing ground for new and exciting features that are still in development. You can toggle on this new Timeline experience by opening the Settings menu → General → and scrolling down to the Labs section.

The new timeline comes with many changes, which is why we’re putting it in Labs for users to get acquainted, and to allow more time for testing and polish.

Here’s what you need to know:

You can read more about all the changes in our help center, including a video walkthrough from Andrew.

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.

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.