Edit video by editing words.
A private video editor for journalists who don't want their footage in the cloud or sent to AI services, and for anyone who just needs a quick, raw cut. A round-trip extension for video editors to get assembly cuts from producers, journalists and subject-matter experts.
- No cloud
- No AI services
- Your footage is never uploaded
Fewer features, on purpose
textbased.video gives up the cloud and AI features other text-based editors have, so your material stays under your control.
- ✓You're a journalist who protects your materialYou don't want interviews sitting in someone else's cloud or passing through an AI service, and you'll accept fewer features to keep it that way.
- ✓You just want a quick, raw cutA social clip or a straight cut of what someone said, exported as an MP4 in minutes. No frills to learn: if you can edit a document, you can edit this.
- ✓You're an editor or a newsroomYou want your media kept in one place, your own storage, not copied into another platform. And you don't want to buy more editing licences just so producers can make assembly cuts.
- ✕You want AI to do the workSummaries, automatic cuts, rewriting, generated voices. Other text-based editors build that in.
- ✕You want cloud storage and sharing built inHere, files move only when you move them.
- ✕You want a finishing toolMusic, titles, graphics and timelines stay in your editing software.
How transcription works: in our apps, an open-source speech-recognition model runs entirely on your device. No audio or text is sent anywhere, and no account is needed. Transcripts made in Premiere Pro are made by Adobe, under Adobe's terms.
The desktop app
Free for anyone, no sign-up. Transcribe, cut, add voiceover and pictures, export a video or a .tbv file. Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later), Windows 11 and Linux.
The app for Android and iPhone
The same editor rebuilt for touch. Android is out now as a free alpha; iPhone is coming. It opens the same .tbv files as the desktop app: open one from Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer — or however you store and share your files — and keep working.
The Premiere Pro extension
For editors. Exports a sequence as one bundle for you to send to a journalist, and opens what comes back as a sequence. A paid extension at launch; apply now for early access.
All three read and write the same .tbv file. Start on a phone, pick it up on your computer through Google Drive, Dropbox — or however you store and share your files — then send it on to Premiere.
Your files never go through us.
Two ways of working
Your own footage, start to finish. No editor or project needed.
The Premiere round trip
Hand an assembly to the person who was in the room, and get their cut back as a sequence.
Your footage never touches our servers
There's no cloud to upload to and no account to make. Transcripts made in our apps never leave your device. Transcripts made in Premiere Pro are made by Adobe, under Adobe's terms. When work changes hands, you move the file with what your newsroom already uses.
Full detail in the privacy policy.
- ✓Never sent to usVideo, audio, transcripts and edits are never sent to us.
- ✓Locked files, if you wantAdd a password when you save a .tbv. Only someone with the password can open it in our apps. We never see it, and can't recover it.
- ✓Your storage, not oursGoogle Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, SharePoint, LucidLink — or however you store and share your files. We never hold them.
- ✓Small repliesA reply carries only what's new, like the edit, voiceover and pictures. The footage the editor already has stays where it is.
The apps are free for anyone
For journalists, producers, marketers, anyone. No sign-up, no account, no watermark. They roll out as free alphas: Mac, Windows, Linux and Android now, then iPhone.
The only part that needs an application. Early-access testers use it free; pricing and licence terms come with the launch. Apply for early access
On the way
- · The app for iPhone
- · DaVinci Resolve support for editors