Add closed captions to videos

When someone says ‘subtitles’, they usually lump together genuine subtitles and what they ought to call closed captions. The distinction is subtle, but worth making. Subtitles are translations – from French to English, say – for those who can hear but can’t understand the content. Closed captions, on the other hand, transcribe all spoken content in the original language, identify who’s saying what, and describe important noises, like gunshots, revving cars or water sloshing (see screenshot below). If you’re hard of hearing, closed captions are more often what you need and, in this feature, that’s what we’ll focus on.

If you have a hearing impairment, you’ll understand the value