Captions & on-screen text
Subtitles
What is Subtitles?
Subtitles are lines of text displayed on screen that represent spoken dialogue, primarily to translate content from one language into another. On social video, they are common on multilingual channels or whenever a creator wants to reach audiences who speak a different language from the one used in the video.
When you'd use it
- 1When a video is recorded in one language and the target audience speaks a different language.
- 2When distributing a brand video across markets where localized text tracks replace a dubbed audio track.
- 3When a multilingual channel posts content in the creator's native language for an international following.
- 4When a campaign clip runs in a country where the spoken language differs from the majority language of the audience.
Example
A fitness creator shoots all content in English but wants to reach a Spanish-speaking audience in Mexico and the US. She exports the video with an SRT file, runs it through a translation service, and hard-burns the Spanish lines at the bottom of the vertical frame. The Spanish lines draw 40 percent of her total comments on that upload, from viewers who had never engaged with her English-language posts.
Use cases
- 1Adding translated text to a Spanish-language founder interview for an English-speaking audience.
- 2Localizing a product launch video into French and German text tracks for European distribution.
- 3Displaying translated dialogue lines on a clip from a brand event held in a foreign market.
FAQ
What is the difference between subtitles and captions?
Captions transcribe audio into text in the same language as the speaker, and are designed for accessibility including non-speech cues like [music] or [applause]. Subtitles translate dialogue into a different language and assume the viewer can hear the audio. On social platforms these terms are used loosely, but the practical difference is intent: accessibility versus translation.
Make on-brand short-form video from the footage you already have.
