Targeted Topic Search: Pre-Generation and Find More

By default, Generate Shorts scans your entire video and picks the strongest standalone moments it can find. But sometimes you already know what you are looking for — a specific anecdote, a product demo, or an answer to a particular question buried somewhere in a long recording.

Topic-Based Search gives you two ways to guide the AI:

  • Search Prompt — tell the AI what to look for before generation starts
  • Find More Stories — search the same video for additional topics after initial results are ready, without re-uploading or re-transcribing

Using a Search Prompt at Start

When you launch Generate Shorts with AI mode enabled and the "Create Shorts" toggle turned on, an optional text field appears in the Shorts section. This is the Search Prompt.

1

Open Generate Shorts

In the editor, tap the AI button and select Generate Shorts. Make sure the AI toggle is on and "Create Shorts" is enabled.

2

Enter your search prompt

In the text field (placeholder: "e.g. Find the story about..."), describe the topic you want the AI to focus on. Be specific: instead of "cooking," try "the part where they make pasta from scratch."

3

Start generation

Tap the start button. The AI transcribes the video as usual, then focuses its segmentation on moments that match your prompt. It still finds the best hooks and boundaries — but within the topic you specified.

Leaving the prompt empty is fine. Without a search prompt, the AI picks the strongest moments across the entire video — the standard Generate Shorts behavior.

Finding More Stories After Generation

After Generate Shorts finishes, you might want to pull out additional clips from the same video — a different angle, a follow-up story, or a topic you did not think of initially. The Find More button lets you do exactly that.

1

Tap "Find More"

After generation completes, a Find More button appears in the results view. Tap it to open the search sheet.

2

Describe the story to find

Enter a description of what you are looking for (placeholder: "e.g. story about cooking"). The description tells the AI which parts of the transcript to focus on.

3

Search

Tap the search button. Because the transcription is already cached from the first run, results come back much faster — no re-uploading or re-transcribing needed. Only the AI segmentation step runs again with your new query.

4

Review new results

New Shorts appear alongside the original results. You can search the same video as many times as you like with different topics.

No extra upload cost. Find More reuses the cached transcription, so only the AI analysis step counts toward your quota — significantly less than a full generation run.

Use Cases and Examples

Topic search is especially useful when you have long-form content that covers many subjects:

  • Cooking channels — record a full session, then search for "the part where they season the steak" or "plating the dessert." Pull out individual recipe steps as standalone Shorts.
  • Lectures and courses — after generating the main highlights, use Find More to extract clips about specific concepts: "explanation of supply and demand," "the example about inflation."
  • Interviews and podcasts — search for "the story about growing up in a small town" or "advice for beginners." Extract answers to specific questions without scrubbing through the full recording.
  • Product demos — record a full walkthrough, then search for individual features: "how to set up notifications," "the pricing comparison." Each becomes its own focused Short.
  • Event footage — search a long event recording for "the keynote about sustainability" or "the Q&A session" to create targeted recaps.

Tips for Better Search Results

Be descriptive, not vague. "The part about dogs" will work, but "the story about rescuing the dog from the shelter" will produce more precise results because the AI can match against specific words and context in the transcript.
Use the language of the video. If the speaker says "machine learning" rather than "AI," use "machine learning" in your search. The AI matches against the actual transcript, so mirroring the speaker's vocabulary improves accuracy.
Search repeatedly. Find More is designed for multiple passes. Run one search for "funny moments," another for "key takeaways," a third for "behind the scenes stories" — each pass can uncover clips the previous one did not surface.
Speech content only. Topic search works by analyzing the transcript — what was said in the video. It cannot find visual-only moments (like a scenic drone shot with no narration). For those, use standard Generate Shorts without a search prompt.