Not using subtitles in videos for social media is a missed opportunity, because many people are online without sound and rely on text and it’s easy to add subtitles. More and more programs allow this to be automated, which has significantly reduced the workload. So there are no more excuses why you shouldn’t make your videos more accessible and service-oriented! Here are some simple tips on how to insert subtitles in your video.
Insert subtitles in the video: why it’s important?
Subtitles are important because they help you reach out to people who can’t or don’t want to hear the audio in your videos. According to current statistics, around one-fifth of all people over the age of 14 are hearing impaired, and around five percent are hard of hearing. It can be difficult for everyone involved to follow your content if you don’t support them visually—that is, with text. So the main benefit of subtitles is that they increase accessibility.
But not only people with physical disabilities benefit from subtitles: Loud environments, a low volume of the end device or a suboptimal sound can mean that your viewers do not understand everything.
In addition, with Instagram and other visual networks, you cannot assume that your viewers will (want to) turn on the sound at all. Especially those who are on the go (and that is known to be the best time for social media) often consume without sound.
Subtitles allow everyone to go without sound and still not miss a thing. This significantly improves the service for your followers. Forgoing the supporting text is becoming increasingly negligent. With more and more videos offering subtitles, users may even be dissatisfied if they can only follow your content with audio. It always depends a bit on which network you are on, because on TikTok, for example, you can assume that your followers will also want to hear your videos more than on Instagram. However, the risk of dissatisfaction is increasing.
In addition, subtitles and captions are also stylistic devices that can significantly enhance your videos. With TikTok in particular, subtitles don’t just function as pure information – they are often used as an effect and can even play a major role. They often replace the voiceover, providing the context necessary to understand the video. And they attract a lot of attention, so you should use them judiciously.
An example to illustrate:
On the one hand, the captions classify the situation that helps to understand the video (the car first rolls forwards, then backward again, and thus demolishes the car door). On the other hand, it is a statement with a personal opinion. In addition, the video is supplemented by a call to action, which could increase the distribution of the video.
Of course, this is not a subtitle in the strict sense. Knowing how to add such captions is just as important as using subtitles. That’s why we show you how both work and which tools can help you.
Insert subtitles in the video: Edit TikTok subtitles within the app
TikTok is equipped with a good video editor that has the most important functions and of course, also allows you to insert captions.
To insert a caption, you just have to open the video editor and click on “Aa/Text” at the bottom of the screen.
You can then select the font, font color, and size and type in the text. So it is not an automatic subtitle creation, as you may know, it is from YouTube, but you have to become active and create the subtitles yourself.
After all, setting the font and Co. allows you to become a little more individual here. You can also determine the length of the overlay and thus write your video in subtitles or play with the possibilities.
Can you delete TikTok subtitles after posting?
No, unfortunately, this is not possible. If this is necessary, there is only one workaround: save the video, upload it again, and change or delete the subtitles. If you don’t want to have two almost identical videos in your profile, you have to delete the old video. Anything but optimal, because the reactions to video 1 are lost, but the only option at the moment.
Automatic subtitles on Instagram
IGTV offers you the possibility to easily use automated subtitles. However, this function is a bit more complicated to find because you have to activate it twice: Once in your app settings under “Account -> Subtitles -> Automatically generated subtitles -> activate” and once for each upload separately. Here you have to activate the automatically generated subtitles under “advanced settings”.
The subtitle will be added shortly after upload. You can’t edit it before or after: if there are errors, they stay. The only possibility is to remove the entire caption again. After all, IGTV offers a more convenient variant here compared to TikTok and you can easily disable the subtitles in the settings.
Insert subtitles in the original video material: 3 options
If you plan to exploit your raw footage across multiple social media channels, you don’t want to do the same work for each network. After all, this is a lot of work, and the error rate increases, because the automatic subtitles in particular are not always error-free.
For reasons of corporate design, it can also be worthwhile for you to add subtitles to the file and use this basis for all videos. Whether the workload is less depends on how much you crop your videos for the different networks.
Adobe Premiere Pro offers automatic subtitles with video functionality
More and more professional video editing programs now offer the option of automatically transcribing subtitles. In Adobe Premiere Pro, this has been working easily and, above all, quite reliably for a few months, as this video maker explains here:
The big advantage here is of course that you can calmly check whether the automatic subtitles reflect what is said in the video. This way you avoid embarrassing “interrogators”.
Specialized apps like Simon Says
A kind of interim solution can be specialized apps. An excellent example is the Simon Says app, the core of which is an AI that recognizes what is said, assigns it to a speaker, and automatically writes it down.
But the app can do even more: It enables flexible arrangement, burns the subtitles into the file, and has an export function that supports all common formats. So you can use them to add automated subtitles to your editing program. If your business operates internationally, automated translations will come in handy.
However, the app is not cheap. She calculates according to transcribed minutes. Anyone who decides on a monthly subscription for 15 US dollars has two hours included per month. This should be sufficient for most social media activities, but extensive productions quickly reach their limits.
Dictaphone + editing software
If you want to travel as cheaply as possible, a simpler solution will suffice: you can use the video as a source for a dictation program. It probably won’t cost you anything, because iOS and Windows 10 both have such a program on board. If you play the video through the speakers, it will be recognized as a voice source and the dictation program will then try to transcribe it. Depending on the quality of the source file and the hardware, this sometimes works better and sometimes worse. However, you can improve and then transfer the subtitles to your editing program.
What is SRT?
SRT (also: SubRip) is the abbreviation for “Synchronous Residual Time Stamp”. SRT is the most common subtitle format and is supported by most editing programs and video players.
An SRT file only contains the subtitle text and an indication of when in the video the subtitle should be faded in and out. The file is embedded in the video format and the user can then display the subtitles.
Various translations can also appear as subtitles via SRT. You only need a separate SRT file for each. However, it is not possible to design the subtitles graphically individually or to create effects such as in karaoke. For more leverage would be SSA (Substation Alpha) and the OpenSource programAegiSub possible solutions. However, it often makes more sense to create and burn in the subtitles with a video editing program.
It is often much easier to assign the necessary timestamps to the respective statements in the editing program than to note them directly. In principle, however, you can easily create SRT subtitles with the text editor by specifying the respective
timestamps in the format XX:XX:XX, XXX and insert the subtitle that should be displayed in this period underneath.
An example would be:
1. 00:00:03,000 –> 00:00:06,145
This subtitle starts at 3 seconds
and ends at 6 seconds and 145 milliseconds.
2. 00:00:06,145 –> 00:00:08:345
This is the second subtitle.
For more complex projects, Amara or Subtitle Horse are good, no-fuss ways to create subtitles that you can import into your editing program. You can also easily create SRT subtitles with these programs.
Free ways to insert subtitles
If you just want to add subtitle files to your video on Instagram Reels or other platforms, there are various cheap and free programs for that. But not all are of the same quality. Some of them even offer the option of automatically creating subtitles.
One such program is Veed, which makes creating automated subtitles easy:
1. Step 1: Click on “New Project” and upload the file of your video.
2. Step 2: Choose “Subtitles” from the right toolbar.
3. Step 3: Click on “Auto SubTitles” and select the correct language.
4. Step 4: Click on “Start”.
Now an overview opens with the transcribed subtitles, which admittedly are rarely 100 percent correct. However, with the timestamps, a lot has already been gained on the way to SRT subtitles and you can easily correct the mistakes. A few more punctuation marks and your subtitles will be perfect.
You can change the appearance of the subtitles via “Styles”. You can change their positioning simply by dragging and dropping. The download function allows you to burn in the subtitles and download your video in the perfect format. The disadvantage: In the free version, you can only use the video with a watermark.
You don’t feel like changing the medium and want to do everything via the app? Then the apps Vont or VivaVideo will help you. Other options are the already discussed Simon Says or the VN Video Editor.
In addition, most video editing apps have a subtitle feature. The costs sometimes differ significantly and the overall package is not always right. Try out a few apps to find the editor you like working with the most. Most programs have a free demo and don’t cost a fortune for the paid version.
Insert subtitles in video: various options for all requirements
Luckily, there are many ways to add subtitles to your video. Of course, professional tools with their good speech recognition are the greatest work simplification – on the other hand, they are not an absolute must-have. Even with free solutions, you can easily add subtitles to your videos, enhancing them and breaking down barriers.