How to add captions to a video
Captions make a video easier to follow for everyone, and essential for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing or who watch without sound. Here is how to add them well.
Make them automatically, then check them
Typing captions by hand takes a long time. Automatic speech recognition gives you a first draft in minutes: on the auto captions page, add your video and let Snipply write out the words with their timing. It runs on your device, so the audio is not uploaded.
Automatic captions are never perfect. Watch the whole video and correct names, technical words and anything spoken over music or noise. A caption with a wrong word is more confusing than no caption at all.
Rules that make captions easy to read
- Keep each caption to one or two lines, about 30 to 40 characters per line.
- Show each caption long enough to read, roughly a second or more for short lines.
- Break lines at natural points, between phrases, not in the middle of a name.
- Use high contrast: white text with a dark outline or on a dark box. Avoid thin fonts and colours that disappear on bright scenes.
- Keep captions away from the very bottom edge on vertical videos, where app buttons and descriptions cover them.
Burned-in captions or a caption file?
Burned-in (open) captions are part of the picture, so they show everywhere, including on apps that do not support caption files. They are the usual choice for short videos on social media. A caption file (.srt or .vtt) is uploaded alongside the video on YouTube, Vimeo, course platforms and many video players. Viewers can turn it on or off, it can be translated, and search engines can read it. For long videos and lessons, a caption file is usually better; for short social clips, burn them in.
Accessibility beyond captions
Captions cover speech. For viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, also include important sounds in brackets, such as [doorbell] or [music], and identify who is speaking when it is not obvious. For viewers who are blind or have low vision, describe important on-screen text out loud or in the description.
Last reviewed October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do captions help a video get found?
A caption file can be read by platforms and search engines, so it helps them understand what the video is about. Burned-in captions are part of the picture and cannot be read the same way.