External Content Activities

Collect anywhere. Analyze everything in Recollective.

Your team conducts interviews on Zoom, captures sessions in person and runs studies on specialist platforms determined by clients. The collection is distributed — but your analysis doesn't have to be.

External Content Activities enable you to upload video and audio recordings from any source directly into Recollective. Every recording is automatically transcribed, organized and ready for analysis through Ask AI alongside your native study data.

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Screenshot of Recollective UX Testing platform showing Usability Test Session Recordings page with description of video recordings from moderated sessions, a file upload area with an example video thumbnail labeled Zoom-IDI.mp4 and file size 184 MB.

What you can do with External Content Activities

One library for all your video research.

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Research teams routinely face the same problem: data lives in too many places and pulling it into a single environment for analysis takes hours of work before any insight can happen. External Content Activities solves that at the point of upload.

Drop in video and audio recordings from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discuss.io, in-person sessions or other specialist platforms. Recollective detects the language and transcribes it automatically. No third-party services and costs. No manual formatting. No extra steps – just analysis-ready data.

Participant contributions are available for video excerpting, summarization and in Ask AI — queryable, searchable and analyzable alongside everything else in your study.

For teams that run research in more than one place, that consolidation is the whole point:

"Being able to bring external content into the platform is a game changer. The ability to compare analysis across our external interviews and the data collected internally on Recollective solves nearly every issue we could have."

Nilza Anibal

Technology & Platforms Manager

Use External Content Activities to:

Eliminate transcription overhead — files are automatically transcribed on upload, replacing external transcription tools entirely
Analyze all your data in one place — uploaded recordings sit alongside native Recollective data and are immediately available in Ask AI
Bulk upload files — drag-and-drop multiple files at once, built for teams managing multiple studies per month, not one recording at a time
Support global research programs — automatic or user-selected language processing handles multi-market studies without additional tools
Keep raw materials secure — admin-only visibility separates research files from participant-facing study flows

Screenshot of a video transcript interface showing a conversation between Host and Attendee discussing the Attendee’s small ceramics business, growth on social media platforms, and customer engagement.

No new tools. No new workflows. Just more of your data in the same place.

Instead of changing how you collect video insights, External Content Activities change what happens next. Recordings upload into Recollective, transcription runs automatically and analysis starts in Ask AI through the interface your team already uses.

"If we run a pop-up community in Recollective and then run interviews externally on Zoom or Teams, we can use the External Content feature to bring in the transcript. Having all the reporting in one area allows us to connect all the dots for maximum efficiency." - Madalina Khan, Verve

Screenshot of Recollective interface showing a usability test titled 'Usability test Aisha Airbnb' with a transcript of a conversation between a host and attendees discussing Airbnb usage. On the right, video thumbnails of three participants are visible, with details about the video file and test summary including mood and energy levels analysis.

Screenshot of an interface titled External Participant Recordings showing a table listing recordings with columns for Name, File Size, Source Date, Upload Date, and Status, including entries for Sam Journal, Becky Journal, and Group Interview. Below is a detailed view of participant feedback on platform features, highlighting ease of use, speed, flexibility in feedback submission, AI tools aiding research, and user experience enhancements. There are 32 verbatim responses from 3 participants with contextual questions and answers displayed, referencing a Becky Interview source.

The result is a centralized qualitative insights hub. Every interview, focus group and recording is now accessible from one platform, regardless of where it was captured.

"It was simple and intuitive to upload the videos and use the External Content feature. The speed at which it generates the AI summary and key takeaways right after uploading is incredibly useful. It is a really great feature to start with." - Madalina Khan, Verve

How External Content Activities work

Create an External Content Activity

Add an External Content Activity to any Recollective study. It creates a dedicated, structured location for externally captured recordings — organized separately from participant-facing tasks and visible to administrators only.

Upload your recordings

Drag-and-drop video or audio files individually or in bulk. There's no restriction on the source platform. Zoom, Teams, in-person sessions and specialist tools are all supported.

Recollective transcribes on upload

Each file is automatically transcribed with language detection applied on upload. Files are analysis-ready shortly after the upload is complete.

Manage your research library

A file metadata table lets you filter and sort recordings by date, size and name. As projects scale and research libraries grow, files stay organized and accessible.

Analyze alongside all your data

Contributions from uploaded recordings can be optionally mapped to existing participants and are searchable, queryable and analyzable alongside everything else in your study including video excerpting, summarization and in Ask AI.

Why research teams use External Content Activities

External Content Activities in Recollective: business needs, capabilities and outcomes
Business need	What External Content Activities delivers	Why it matters
Centralize multi-source research data	A single library for recordings from any platform, alongside native Recollective data	Joined-up analysis without manual data wrangling
Eliminate transcription overhead	Automatic transcription and language processing on upload	No third-party transcription service required
Bulk upload files	Bulk drag-and-drop and a metadata table filterable by date, size and name	A round of sessions uploads in one pass and stays organized
Analyze everything in one environment	Ask AI applies to uploaded recordings and native study data together	No context switching between tools to complete analysis
Support global programs	Automatic or user-selected language processing during transcription	Multi-market research without additional translation tools
Maintain data governance	Admin-only visibility keeps raw materials separate from participant-facing flows	Confidential research data stays controlled and structured

For the teams already using it, the time it gives back is what stands out:

"The External Content Activity feature is basically like having an extra researcher on your computer. It's a massive time saver that validates our findings and enriches our reporting so much more."

Nilza Anibal

Technology & Platforms Manager

Security, privacy and governance built for enterprise

External Content Activities runs inside Recollective, supported by the same enterprise security posture and controls used across the platform, including:

SOC 2 Type 2 compliant controls and processes
Encryption in transit and at rest
Deployment options across multiple regions to support data residency needs
Customer control over AI features, including the ability to opt out
AI sub-processor agreements that prohibit data retention for model training

Enterprise identity and access options are also available, including integrations with identity providers like Okta and an SSO API that can authenticate participants and administrators.

Download the Security and Privacy Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

What are External Content Activities?

It's a new activity type in Recollective that lets you upload video and audio recordings from any external platform directly into a study for automatic transcription and analysis through Ask AI.

What recording platforms are supported?

Any platform. Whether recordings came from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discuss.io, in-person sessions or other specialist platforms, they can be uploaded into an External Content Activity.

What file types are supported?

External Content Activities supports a range of video and audio file formats. Read the full list of supported formats here or contact your account manager.

Do I need a separate transcription service?

No. Transcription and speaker diarization happen automatically on upload, with no external tool involved. Your account manager can confirm the file specifications for your use case.

Can I upload multiple files at once?

Yes. Files can be uploaded individually or in bulk via drag-and-drop.

Are uploaded files visible to study participants?

No. Admin-only visibility keeps uploaded recordings separate from participant-facing study flows.

Is multi-language transcription supported?

Yes. Automatic or user-selected language processing during transcription supports global research programs across multiple markets.

Can I use Ask AI with uploaded recordings?

Yes. Once uploaded, participant contributions from external recordings are immediately available in Ask AI alongside all other study data.

Is External Content Activities included in my current plan?

External Content Activities is available as a paid add-on for all Recollective plans. Contact your account manager or reach out here for pricing details.

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