Feature Requests

Descript has so much potential to be an incredibly powerful tool, but the current focus on all the AI tool hype is really hurting the product. 95% of the time I try to use Underlord, it doesn't come close to a correct result, no matter how simple the request or how clear the prompt. Absolutely there are great use-cases (eye contact & auto multicam are examples that actually enhance my projects) and lots of great tools and improvements lately so I don't want to sound negative or anti-AI entirely, I'm not, but the focus lately on all marketing I've seen has been mainly generative tools that either aren't working that well or that I don't remotely need as a podcast producer (like generative video). What Descript needs most are UI and functionality improvements, not AI hype. There are countless suggestions in this community, many of which seem relatively simple to implement, that would improve the app far more than these AI tools. Just a few that come to mind now: organizing projects into folders strategizing app updates better (so it isn't constantly like "restart the app!!") further improving timeline UI so that layer height can be adjusted and vertical scrolling of layers is easier (a scroll bar, a way to control height of layer and audio bars, toggles for different types of layers like to be able to show or hide audio, etc) exporting audio from a video composition (used to be able to do it, why require another composition to be made? Then if you have to make an edit you have to do it in multiple compositions, unnecessary) exporting chapter markers (I use Buzzsprout and I've tried to submit this request over and over again) being able to adjust marker locations and scene boundaries by dragging in the timeline improving transcription accuracy improving assigning of speakers (very buggy often, always needs correcting) improving the sequence editor (very tricky to edit when there are multiple tracks) make audio editing more like a DAW to be able to control individual tracks (a bigger update but this should be a top priority since pro audio editing should be a core element of a podcast editor) returning to having actual humans respond to support requests, not AI bots I can't be the only user that wants to see my subscription fees put to these kind of things instead of towards AI tools that are highly unreliable and that I don't even need. And again, I say this as a fan and longtime user of Descript that sees so much more potential in it.

Each new project should retain the settings from the last used project so I don't have to repeat the same sequence of actions every single time I apply an effect or AI tool. For example, I have to Change layout pack in each new project; I have to set Studio Sound intensity to 30% every time I use it; I have to adjust Lower other audio to 30% instead of 10%. The odd thing is Descript does this with some features like Shorten word gaps but not with others like using Ignore instead of Delete for Filler words. It really would help make the app more consistent.

Our use case often involves: Multiple camera angles client talking head + screen/webinar content Idea: Use audio fingerprinting to: Auto-stitch multicam recordings. Apply our saved scene types (e.g., “two-camera talking head + slides”) across the entire timeline.

Current Pain: We follow a consistent editing pattern across almost all projects: Certain types of cuts Certain caption style Certain framing and motion choices Right now we have to recreate those decisions every time, or hunt through settings and properties. Impact: Slower onboarding of editors. Increased risk of inconsistent look and feel across content. Requests / Ideas: Project-Level Defaults A “Project Style” or “Global Settings” section where we can define: Default aspect ratio Default fonts/colors Default caption style Default behavior for cuts, motion, zooms Quick Design and other automation should respect these settings. Workflow Presets Ability to say: For this workspace, all videos should by default: - Use Style A - Use Layout Set B - Avoid certain transitions (e.g., no jumpy zooms)

Current Pain: The Layouts system feels: Confusing (what’s a layout vs a scene vs a template?) Slow to load Hard to save and re-apply our own custom layouts. Quick Design applies default fonts and styles that we always end up changing to match our brand. Impact: We don’t have a reliable way to say: “Use our brand style everywhere.” Editors spend time fixing design decisions instead of editing content. Requests / Ideas: Brand-Aware Quick Design Let us define brand templates (fonts, colors, lower-thirds, caption styles). Quick Design should: Respect those brand settings by default. Never override them with generic fonts/styles unless explicitly chosen. Clear “Scene Types” / Layout Types We tend to have consistent scene patterns: Full-screen talking head Talking head + slides Talking head + B-roll Allow us to define these as named scene types and: Apply them quickly Have Quick Design build a video by cycling through our own scene types, not random/default layouts. Easier Save & Reapply Layouts Make it obvious how to: Save the current arrangement as a reusable layout/template. Apply that layout to other scenes or projects. Reduce latency in the Layouts panel so it feels responsive.

Current Pain: Quick Design/quick edit forces everything into a 9:16 vertical format. When we bring that back into our standard 16:9 workflow, the video warps/deforms, which makes the output effectively unusable for our primary content. The feature is very opinionated (fonts, motion, cuts, etc.), and once applied, we can’t easily adjust or roll back those choices. Impact: We can’t rely on Quick Design for our main use cases (webinars, long-form advisor content). Editors end up redoing work manually, which defeats the purpose of “quick.” Requests / Ideas: Multiple Aspect Ratios in Quick Design Allow choosing 16:9, 1:1, 9:16 (and possibly others) at the start of Quick Design. Ensure layouts don’t break when switching between supported ratios. Configurable Elements & “Advanced Mode” Let us choose what Quick Design applies: Whether to add cuts at all Whether the main video moves around the frame Whether to use zoom cuts, sharp cuts, or soft transitions A simple checkbox-based “Advanced” panel would go a long way: [x] Add automatic cuts [ ] Move primary video around frame [x] Add zoom cuts [ ] Add B-roll automatically Preset “Treatment Profiles” Instead of a one-size-fits-all Quick Design, allow saved profiles like: “Talking head webinar” “Shorts-style social clip” “Advisor explainer” Each profile pre-sets cuts, motion, fonts, and aspect ratio.

Please introduce a way to browse or search across all the media files I have in all projects. For example, I usually reuse a set of about 6 or 7 mp3 files across my projects. But I often can't remember which project has a specific track I want to use, and there’s no easy way to find it without having to open each project one by one. In most cases, it's simply easier and faster to just upload the file again, since I have them all saved in a single folder on my desktop. But that now costs media credits. Considering credits are used up for every new media file you upload, a searchable, account-wide media library (that's accessible from the Projects tab) would save time, reduce duplicate uploads, and help users make better use of their credits.

Have you heard of notchie.app ? You should build that.

I would say at least half of the edits I need to make for my transcripts are fixing issues that Descript introduces because it does bizarre things with punctuation and random capitalization of words like you, somebody, some and that after commas. Can you stop it from adding a comma every time a presenter pauses to gather their thoughts? I that's why we see extra commas, and commas in the wrong places like after an "and" or "or" or "of" instead of before one. Regardless of whether that's the cause, grammatically those commas need to come before those words, not after them. A bigger issue is it throws in commas and periods in places that would never have them. There is zero reason that there should ever be period after the words "the", "and" or "or" because humans don't end sentences with these words, but the transcripts are littered with them, and each needs to be removed. There are only a few cases that there should be a comma or period after the words "to" and never a period or comma after "a" and not only are there tons of both in transcripts, you also can't do a search and replace since you decided to only allow find whole words on words 3 letters/characters or longer! Yes, I can search for them without selecting the match the whole word filter, but when I'm looking to replace "a," it also picks up every time there's a "trauma," which is quite often considering the topic of our lectures. Also, why does it separate prefixes from the words? We don't write about re experiencing things or non compliance or co workers, but Descript renders prefixes that way and all of those need to be fixed too, as well as insisting on adding a space after the period in numbers with decimals, and both a comma and a space to all numbers in the thousands or higher, which is not how humans write either. More recently, within the past couple of months, there are a bunch of periods showing up in inappropriate places within the middle of sentences (not immediately before or after a pause, mind you, but within fluidly spoken sentences) that even Descript seems to realize are not correct, because it doesn't capitalize the next word after these periods, which ironically makes them harder to spot given the marker to indicate a pause between words looks somewhat similar to a period. I've been using this program for 3+ years, and it's frustrating how little attention transcript issues like this are still given. The AI features are great, but maybe you could get AI to fix the punctuation issues while you're at it?

Since you are moving towards more AI help in our workflow, in the future, if AI could suggest from all the available libraries the right B-Roll for the scenes we are active in, that would be amazing.