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Descript now supports one-click export to supported content hosting services. To be integrated as a supported Descript content hosting solution, you’ll need to update your episode creation flow to support the import of episodes from a Descript URL. No API work is required – host integration is built on top of Descript’s export feature, which makes exported audio, video, and transcript metadata available at an easily accessible url. To integrate, follow the instructions below. While the process is largely self-service, please let us know if you are working on an integration, as we’ll need to add you to the app as a final step. We can also provide technical support if you need help with the integration.

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Export from Descript…

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Import from Descript…

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Integration instructions

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Step 1. Acquire the Descript URL from your user

When a customer exports (via Descript’s export feature) their final content in Descript, the audio or video will be uploaded to a share.descript.com page (example), and they’ll be presented with a confirmation dialog with quick links to push the media to their content host and other services. Once you’re a supported partner, the user will be able to select your service to appear as a quick link. The link will direct the user to your episode creation URL, with an argument that will allow you to grab the file from Descript, like this: https://www.example.com/my/profile/descript_import/new?title=Overview&url=https%3A%2F%2Fshare.descript.com%2Fview%2Fa50ffa05-540c-4c62-a36e-4fb14035a9cf You can then query https://share.descript.com/<descript_publish_id> to obtain the media & transcript information for the user’s project.

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Step 2. Download the media

The https://share.descript.com/&lt;descript_publish_id> page provides links to the user’s audio and/or video via the following <meta> in the HTML <head>: <meta property=“descript:audio” content=“<link to the m4a audio file>”>
<meta property=“descript:video” content=“<link to the mp4 video file>“>

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Step 3. Download the transcript data

Descript provides transcript information using the Podcast Namespace Transcript specification. Descript provides this information in both the JSON & WebVTT formats. To access this data, the https://share.descript.com/&lt;descript_publish_id> page provides links to the the via the following <meta> in the HTML <head>: <meta property=“descript:subtitles” content=“<link to the subtitle (WebVTT) file>”>
<meta property=“descript:transcript” content=“<link to the transcript JSON file>“>

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Step 4. Include transcript data in a podcast feed

See Podcast Namespace’s guide for information on how to include transcripts in your podcast’s .RSS feed.

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Best Practices

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1. Polling

The user may click the link to your creation page before their file has completed exporting. To provide the best customer experience, we recommend polling the meta links until the asset is found. While the asset is being generated, the media links will return either a 403 or 404 error. We recommend polling every 30 seconds to 1 minute with a max timeout of 3 hours. The share.descript.com URL will include the metadata tags, with a link to the asset, even while the assets are being generated. Rather than having to poll the Descript page, then fetch the assets once the metadata tags appear, you should be able to fetch the Descript page once to get the asset URLs, then poll the asset URLs until the asset is ready.

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2. Show progress in the UI

While polling is occurring on your app, the user should be notified that the final asset is processing. Screen_Shot_2020-05-26_at_5.34.55_PM.png Some partners, particularly those importing video, should message the user via email or notifications when the asset is imported to your system. Screen_Shot_2020-05-26_at_5.32.10_PM.png

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3. Create an “upload from Descript url” affordance on your episode creation page

Let users know that you support Descript! This is particularly useful in case they’ve dismissed the original export modal on your site.

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Media file specifications

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I’m getting an error when importing

Poll again. If those meta tags do exist, but the media file they point to is not found, then keep polling - the files are being rendered by Descript. By default, this URL is publicly accessible by anyone without the need to login to their Descript accounts. In future updates, users may choose to prohibit their pages from being downloaded by partners. If there is no “descript:audio” or “descript:video” meta tag.  Your applications error state should be something like “Import is disabled for this project.” Video exports will only have a video URL, not an audio-only URL. Your applications will need to extra extract the audio from the mp4 video file.