Social videos

Videos turns a raw testimonial clip into a video ready for social media. You upload the clip. AI plans the edit from its transcript, Descript's AI editor cuts it in your own Descript account, and AI checks the result. You then watch it, ask for changes or approve it. Nothing is posted until someone approves the finished video.

Open Social in the main sidebar, then Videos.

Who can use Videos

Videos is available to practices in the United Kingdom and the United States with a paying Smileline subscription: active, or marked Payment past due while Stripe retries a payment. Practices in other countries don't see Videos. During the free trial, or on the partner free plan, Social → Videos shows Videos need an active subscription with an Open billing link, and you can't start a video until you subscribe. No add-on is needed.

You also need a Descript account of your own. Descript bills its editing minutes and AI credits to that account, not to Smileline (see Costs).

See Who can do what.

Connect your Descript account

Each practice connects one Descript account, using a personal API token from Descript. Until it's connected, Social → Videos shows Connect Descript to start. Owners and managers get a Connect Descript button there, which opens Video settings; everyone else is asked to have a practice admin connect it.

Smileline tests the token with Descript before saving it; the button shows Checking… meanwhile. If Descript doesn't accept it, nothing is saved and you're told so. The token is stored encrypted and is never shown again. Once connected, Video settings shows who connected Descript and when.

A token works on one Descript Drive. Smileline creates one project per video in that Drive, named Smileline video followed by a reference, in a folder called Smileline. The project isn't shared with the rest of the Drive's team.

To use a different Descript account or a new token, click Disconnect, then paste the new token and click Connect Descript. Disconnecting deletes the stored token. A video still being edited then stops at its next Descript step until you connect again and click Retry. Projects already in Descript stay there.

If Descript stops accepting the token, for example because it was deleted in Descript, Social → Videos shows Reconnect Descript. Create a new token in Descript, paste it in Video settings and click Reconnect Descript.

Set your video preferences

In Video settings, under Default preferences, choose the practice's defaults and click Save:

• Length: About 30 seconds, About 60 seconds, About 90 seconds or Keep all the good material.
• Format: Vertical 9:16 (Reels, TikTok, Shorts), Square 1:1, Landscape 16:9 or Keep the original shape.
• Captions: Add captions on or off; the Caption style, Bold, word by word or Simple lines; and the Caption colour. With Brand colour switched on, captions use the Brand colour from Settings → Practice details, or white when the practice has none.
• Clean-up: Remove filler words, Shorten long pauses, Studio sound and Level the volume.
• Logo: Logo intro and outro and Logo in the corner. The logo is always the practice's Email logo from Settings → Practice details; without one, no logo is added and the settings say so.
• Background music: None, Calm, Upbeat, Warm or Inspiring.

Until you save your own, the defaults are: about 60 seconds, vertical 9:16, bold word-by-word captions in the brand colour, every clean-up option on, the logo in the corner, and no music.

A video keeps the preferences it started with. Changing the defaults later doesn't change videos that have already started. On the web you can also change the preferences for a single video when you start it, under Settings for this video. Videos shared from the phone use the defaults.

Make a video on the web

The video's page opens and follows the edit through Import and transcribe, Plan the edit, Edit in Descript, Render the video and Check the result. Editing carries on in the background, so you don't need to stay on the page: Smileline notifies you when the video is ready to review, or if it needs attention.

Social → Videos lists every video, newest first, with when it was created, its length, who started it and its status: Editing, Ready for review, Approved, Needs attention or Cancelled.

Each upload makes one video. If the connection drops as you click Start editing, Smileline opens the video it already started rather than making a second one.

Share a video from your phone

With the mobile app you can start a video straight from your phone's gallery.

The phone uses the practice's default preferences and shows no prices. Without a paying subscription, the app says Video editing isn't available. If Descript isn't connected yet, it says Connect Descript first: tap Open Smileline on the web and connect it there. If you share another clip while an upload is unfinished, choose Carry on with the upload or Replace it. If the phone has no room for a copy of the clip, the app says The video couldn't be prepared for upload: free up space and share the clip again.

When the video is ready, a notification takes you to it. Watch it and read the Automatic check, then tap Approve, or describe the change under What should change? and tap Request changes. Once it's approved, pick the accounts under Post to (Facebook, Instagram as a reel, LinkedIn and YouTube), edit the Caption and, for YouTube, the Video title and audience, then tap Publish now, Schedule or Add to queue. Add to queue appears only when the practice has posting times. TikTok posts are made on the web.

If editing stops, the phone shows why, with Retry and Open Smileline on the web. Stopping editing and deleting a video are done on the web.

How a video is edited

1. Descript imports the clip into your Descript account and transcribes it.
2. AI reads the transcript and your preferences. It picks the passages to keep and writes instructions for Descript's AI editor. It also suggests a caption and a YouTube title.
3. Descript's AI editor edits the project.
4. Descript renders the edit at 1080p, and Smileline copies the finished file.
5. AI checks the result. It reads the edit's transcript and looks at up to five still frames. A video over 100 MB or 10 minutes is checked from its transcript alone, and the video page says so.

Automatic corrections

If the check finds problems, Smileline asks Descript's AI editor to fix them and checks again. It does this up to 2 times per edit. After the second correction the video comes to you for review whatever the check found, with the remaining issues listed. From there it's your call: approve it, or ask for changes.

The limit exists because each correction runs with nobody watching, and each one spends AI on your Smileline invoice and credits on your Descript plan. An edit that the checker never accepts could otherwise go round and round. Nothing is thrown away at the limit: you still get the video, with the checker's notes.

Review, approve and post

When a video is ready, open it from the notification or from Social → Videos. Watch the edited video and read the automatic check's notes: The automatic check found nothing to fix., or The automatic check still found: followed by each issue. Then:

• Request changes: describe what to change, in up to 2,000 characters, and click Send request. The AI plans the edit again from your request, and Descript edits it again. You can ask as often as you like. Each request is billed like the first edit (see Costs). An approved video goes back to review.
• Approve and post: approves exactly the version you watched. If a newer version replaced it while you were watching, Smileline says so and shows the new one; watch it, then approve again. The composer then opens with the video, the suggested caption and, for YouTube, the suggested title. Edit them as you like, choose the accounts, then click Publish now, Schedule… or Add to queue. See Publish social posts.
• Create a post: on an approved video, opens the composer with it again, to make another post.

Only an approved edit can go into a post. Smileline refuses to add an edited video to a post until someone has approved it, even if the video it came from has been deleted.

Stop, resume or delete

• Stop editing stops a video that's being edited or needs attention, once you confirm. AI editing already done is still billed. The video shows Cancelled, and Retry resumes it later from where it stopped.
• Retry on a video that needs attention resumes it from the step that stopped. If the Descript project has gone, it starts again from the import. If the finished file couldn't be downloaded or read, Descript renders it again.
• Delete video, once you confirm, deletes the video and its original footage from Smileline and takes you back to the list. Posts that already use the finished video keep it. The Descript project stays in your Descript account: delete it in Descript if you no longer need it.

When the video is ready to review, or needs attention, Smileline notifies the person who last started its editing: whoever started the video, asked for the latest changes or clicked Retry. The notification appears in the bell and, on devices with push turned on, including the mobile app, as a push notification. Both notifications are in the Reviews and feedback group of Settings → Notifications.

Costs

• AI editing is billed on your Smileline invoice as AI content: £1.80 (VAT included) or $2.00 (plus any applicable tax) for every US$1 of OpenAI usage. Each plan and each check is billed. A request for changes is billed like the first edit, and an AI step that fails isn't billed. On the web, the start dialog shows an estimate. The phone doesn't show prices.
• Descript bills its own media minutes and AI credits to your Descript plan. Every edit, automatic correction and change request uses Descript credits.

Settings → Billing shows the videos edited and the AI editing cost so far this period. See AI content.

Privacy and consent

• Consent: the consent tick box is required for every video. Who ticked it, and when, is recorded in the Activity log.
• Clinical details: keep them out of the footage. Descript's terms don't allow health information.
• Deleting: deleting a video or stopping its editing in Smileline, or disconnecting Descript, leaves the project in your Descript Drive.

Troubleshooting

When a video stops, its page shows Editing paused with one of the messages below. The phone shows the same reasons in shorter words.