How to add an AI co-host to Descript, Riverside, and Restream
The best part about an AI co-host that joins your existing room: there's no new app to learn. It shows up where you already record.
If you record a podcast or run a livestream, you've probably already got a tool you like — Descript Rooms, Riverside, or Restream Studio. The question isn't whether to switch. It's whether you can add an AI co-host to the room you already use, without rebuilding your whole workflow.
That's exactly the model maneku follows. It's a Mac app that joins your room as a guest — the same way a remote co-host would join from their laptop. Here's how it works on each platform.
The general idea
Every modern recording platform works on the same principle: you create a room, you get a shareable link, and guests use that link to join. maneku uses that exact path. You paste your room's link into the app, the co-host joins as a participant, and from there it has everything it needs:
- It hears the room audio, so it can follow the conversation.
- It appears as its own tile with its own name.
- It speaks with a real voice when you summon it.
- On multitrack platforms, it records as its own separate stem.
Descript Rooms
Descript is built for podcasters who edit in Descript afterward, so the co-host's separate track matters here. maneku joins your Descript Room as a guest, and because Descript captures each participant individually, the AI's voice lands as its own track in the resulting project. In the edit you can level it, trim its responses, or cut a summon entirely — it's just another track.
Riverside
Riverside is popular for high-quality remote recording and local-track capture. maneku joins your Riverside studio with its own tile and voice, attributes speakers correctly so the transcript knows who said what, and records as a separate stem alongside your human guests. If you run interview-style shows, the co-host can sit in as a researcher or a third voice.
Restream
Restream Studio leans toward livestreaming — going out live to YouTube, Twitch, and the rest. maneku joins your Restream Studio as a guest and can do something the recording platforms can't: post to the live chat. So while it's talking on the stream, it can also drop a link or a cited source into chat for your viewers in real time.
What about Zoom, Meet, and everything else?
Those are coming. The native integrations above give the co-host its own tile and its own track, which is the premium experience. For platforms that don't allow that kind of guest, a lighter "companion" mode — where the co-host rides your own mic — is on the roadmap. If you record somewhere that isn't listed yet, the most useful thing you can do is join the waitlist and tell us where; it directly shapes what we build next.
Not sure what makes a co-host different from the meeting bots you've seen? We wrote about AI co-hosts vs. AI note-takers.
Bring a co-host to your room
Descript, Riverside, Restream — maneku joins where you already record. Launching soon.
Join the waitlist →