Publishing a web link is the easiest way to share your content created in Descript. You'll create a standalone page (a share page) with its own unique URL, which you can share and even download the content up to 10x faster than exporting a video or audio local file. You can set privacy and other settings for the page (both from your Descript project and the actual published page) so people can view your work, download the content, and make comments.
Hobbyist and Free plans may publish share page videos up to 1 hour in length. Creator, Business, and Enterprise plans may publish share page videos up to 3 hours long. Compositions with video exceeding the length limitation will be published as audio-only share pages.
To ensure a safe and engaging community, you need to log in or sign up to comment on publicly share pages. Creating an account is quick and easy; even a free account will allow you to comment.
Exporting to and publishing a share page
- Click the Export button at the top-right corner of the editor window.
- Select by default you should be brought to where you need to be. If you want to double-check, look at the Destination for Descript (web link).
- Set your title, resolution(video-only), access permissions, and other settings.
- Select Export.
Exports are limited to a scene editor size of 8192 pixels. You can either export your file to a local destination or re-size your scene editor to a smaller resolution through the Aspect ratio and video settings menu.
Updating a share page
You can make updates to content and preserve the original URL by simply following the above steps for publishing the page, but instead of Export, you can click Update after making your updates, and the page content will be re-rendered with the new updates.
Updating or removing a page will permanently remove any comments made on the share page. Users wishing to work collaboratively with other users during the editing phase will instead want to invite collaborators to comment directly within the project. You can learn more about project access.
Removing a share page
If you need to remove a published share page, open the share.descript.com page and in the top right, select the gear icon to open the share page settings. Then you can select Unpublish to remove the share page.
Export settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Resolution: | Set the video resolution to 480p, 720p, 1080p, or 4K. |
| Access: | |
| Public | Published pages are configured to allow search engines to list them in their results. This is good for people who use Descript web links as a public hosting platform. |
| Anyone with the link | Pages are configured to be excluded from search engine results. This is good for sharing links to pages without requiring Descript account access to view them. |
| Project access required | Pages are configured to be excluded from search engine results. Users must sign in with a Descript account and have authorization to view. |
| Settings: | |
| Show transcript | Display your composition’s transcript on the published web page. |
| Allow comments | Allow commenting on the published web page. |
| Show author | Display the project owner’s name on the web page. |
| Allow sharing from embeds | Add a share button on embedded video or audio players of your published page. |
| Custom branding | Enable/disable showing the drive’s icon on the published web page. |
The sign up button can't be removed, but it will disappear once viewers log into their Descript account.
Changing default share page permissions
Drive owners can change the default share page privacy setting for all projects on their drive. To do so, click on your profile image in the top right. Choose Settings. Click on the Preferences tab, locate the Default publish privacy field, and click the dropdown to change your drive-level default.
Adding a thumbnail
By default, your share page's thumbnail will be the first frame of your video. You can customize the thumbnail by clicking on its preview image.
Use a frame from your video
- Click on the thumbnail in the export window.
- Select Change frame.
- Use the slider at the bottom of the preview to move through your video.
- Select Use frame once you find the frame you want to use.
Upload a custom thumbnail
- Click on the thumbnail in the export window.
- Select Upload.
- Choose the image you want to use.
Download, share, or view the page
Once you've exported and published your content it will generate a share page link, you can Download the content, open the share page settings, copy the share page link, copy the share page embed HTML, or open the page from the bottom of the export window.
If you're downloading a project from a share page, on some browsers, it may open the file in a new tab. If it does, you will need to right-click the video and select "Save as" to ensure it's properly saved to your device.
Video watermark
Users on a Free drive or basic members of a Hobbyist or Creator drive will have a Descript watermark in the bottom right-hand corner of their exported videos. Upgrading to a paid Hobbyist, Creator, or Business subscription will remove the watermark from all future exports. This means if you previously published or exported a video, you will need to do this again after upgrading to remove the watermark.
Downloading from a share page is faster than local exporting
One of the key benefits of exporting to a web link and downloading your content is that it renders in the cloud. This rendering process allows you to download your content up to 10 times faster than exporting a local video or audio file. Here you can learn more about downloading from a share page.