Today, we introduced our newest feature to help creators: AI Personas. Personas joins one of 15 other AI-powered workflows paired with intuitive tools and smart integrations to make video creation accessible, efficient, and enjoyable. As part of this launch, we’re also excited to announce our latest partnership with Texel, a video optimization API provider designed for fast and efficient video processing.

What is Texel?

Our team first connected with Rahul and Eli of the Texel team in 2023 when they reached out to us about faster and more efficient image generation than what OpenAI was providing. Since then, we’ve collaborated with them to learn more about a variety of both open- and closed-source models, including Stable Diffusion and Eye Contact. Texel specializes in providing APIs for video enhancement and optimization, and takes a hands-on approach with their customers to ensure the best possible results. 

When they reached out to us to ask about our interest in AI lip sync solutions, we knew we would be excited to connect. Texel’s syncing technology is based on new developments in the open-source community, and their offering enables Kapwing users to edit the lips of a speaker to look like it’s speaking aloud any script. We’re excited to offer this technology to users on Kapwing, and have Texel’s API help power the AI Personas feature.

In comparison to other vendors, we’ve found the Texel team highly technical and responsive, collaborating directly with our team in Slack to fix bugs, address issues, and work on feature requests. The Texel team are GPU optimization experts and have built a fast, reliable API which can also be quickly iterated on. 

How Kapwing and Texel Work Together

With Texel integrated into Kapwing’s platform, users can sync a Persona video of themselves or a stock avatar with any script, creating realistic looking footage without needing to record or re-record. Here's how it enables creators to make video faster than before:

• No recording necessary: Texel’s API works directly on any input video, making it possible for creators to repurpose old footage to bring new ideas to life.
• Faster lip sync: Texel’s API enables Kapwing to provide fast, performant lip sync while also showing an accurate progress estimate to creators, enabling content creation to stay on schedule.
• Better outputs: AI Persona’s wouldn’t work if lip movements looked off, or if upscaling faces lost their original look. By integrating with Texel’s API, we’re able to provide a high quality feature for our customers.
• Support for many languages: Lip sync and personas also help with creating videos across borders in multiple foreign languages. Instead of hiring a foreign actor, teams can use Texel’s lip sync functionality to make a realistic video with a high quality voice over.

Why This Integration Matters

We’ve been so impressed with the performance and cost of Texel’s lip sync that we’ve made it the default option in the Kapwing export flow. You can try it in Kapwing for free using AI personas. We hope that this will unlock a whole new workflow of scalable content creation for Kapwing’s users. At Kapwing, we aspire to produce the tools creators need to produce high-quality, professional videos without extra effort. Our team is excited to see the amazing content that gets made with Kapwing and Texel working together.