How to Add Captions to Instagram Stories

Adding captions to your Instagram Stories sets you apart and enhances accessibility for all viewers, whether watching with or without sound. Captions explain your message, grab attention and keep viewers engaged, boosting the impact of your content.

To make your Instagram Stories and Reels more inclusive and engaging, you can add captions and subtitles manually by typing out each word. Alternatively, you can use the captions sticker, which auto-generates captions for you. However, Instagram’s captioning is not available globally, and the text styles are limited.

Luckily, there’s Subcap, an AI generated captions app that lets you add captions wherever you like. With Subcap, you can customize the appearance and placement of your captions to fit your unique style and storytelling needs.

 

Adding captions to your Instagram Stories offers several key benefits:

  1. Increased Accessibility
  2. Improved Engagement
  3. Better SEO
  4. Longer Watch Time
  5. Increased Audience Reach
  6. Enhanced Brand Awareness and Purchase Intent

 

How to add captions to instagram stories

 

Adding captions to Instagram Stories using Subcap

Go to Subcap app and either select Record New Video or Choose from Library.

After adding a video, select your video language.

 

Select language on Subcap app    Select languages on the app

 

And tap Auto-Generate Captions.

If you want to add subtitles automatically, select Go Pro.

If you are already Pro, it’ll ask again and just select Continue. And then you can edit the subtitles easily if necessary.

 

Add captions (subtitles)? Continue or Add Manually buttons

 

Congrats! You now have a captioned video that you can share on Instagram Stories. Now you can connect with your viewers instantly to make more connections, increase engagement rates, and gain followers.

If you have any questions, please check our FAQ page.

Why should you add boring captions?

Cheerful senior mother and adult daughter using smartphone together, sitting on a bench at a park

Cheerful senior mother and adult daughter using smartphone together, sitting on a bench at a park. Accessible captions by Subcap.

Captions play a vital role in making video content accessible to a wider audience, but unfortunately, many captions still fall short in terms of accessibility. In this blog post, we revisit the crucial topic of accessible captions, discuss Subcap’s commitment to accessibility over flashy features, and highlight Meryl Evans’ tweet and video on the importance of proper captioning.

Why Accessibility Matters:

Inaccessible captions create barriers for individuals with hearing impairments and those who rely on captions to understand video content. By focusing on accessibility, you help provide equal access to information and entertainment for all viewers.

Subcap’s Commitment to Accessibility:

Subcap is dedicated to supporting accessible captions. While some users may suggest animations or karaoke-style captions, Subcap prioritizes accessibility over these flashy features to ensure that captions are easy to read and understand by all viewers.

 

Meryl Evans, a deaf professional and advocate for accessibility, shared her thoughts on the importance of proper captioning in a tweet and video:

“Captioning should be more than just an afterthought. Quality captions make a world of difference for deaf and hard of hearing people like me. Let’s work towards making captions more accessible for everyone. #AccessibilityMatters”

In her video, Meryl talks about Hormozi captions, emphasizing the significance of accurate and timely captions for better understanding. She says “The best captions are boring. They let the video be the star.”

 

Best Practices for Captioning Videos for Accessibility with Subcap:
  1. Customize for Readability:

Subcap allows you to tailor the font, size, and color of your captions to ensure they are easily readable by all viewers.

  1. Choose a Clear Font:

Select a simple and easy-to-read font. Avoid using decorative or intricate fonts that may be difficult for some viewers to decipher.

  1. Keep it Plain and Readable:

Ensure your captions are presented in a clean and clear format that is easy for viewers to follow and understand.

  1. Subtitles in Blocks:

Display subtitles in blocks or phrases, rather than one word at a time, to improve readability and comprehension.

  1. Mixed Case Letters:

Use mixed case letters instead of all uppercase letters for a more comfortable reading experience.

  1. Punctuate and Capitalize Properly:

Proper punctuation and capitalization help viewers understand the flow and meaning of the dialogue. Include commas, periods, and other punctuation marks where appropriate.

  1. Use Clear and Concise Language:

When captioning your video, avoid using jargon, abbreviations, or acronyms that may be confusing for some viewers. Opt for clear and concise language that is easily understood by all.

  1. Synchronize the Captions:

Ensure that your captions are synchronized with the audio, allowing viewers to follow along easily. Captions that lag behind or run ahead of the audio can make it difficult for viewers to comprehend the content.

  1. Include Non-Speech Elements:

Caption relevant non-speech elements such as music, sound effects, and background noises that contribute to the context or atmosphere of the video.

 

By focusing on accessibility, you can make a significant difference in the viewing experience for all users, including those with hearing impairments. Embrace Subcap’s commitment to accessible captions and follow these best practices to ensure your video content is both engaging and inclusive.

If you like to read our previous blog post about this, here:

The Best Way to Caption Videos for Accessibility

How to Fix Instagram’s Auto-Generated Captions

Automatically generated captions are now available for all feed videos on Instagram and captions will be turned on by default. TikTok introduced this feature in April 2021, so it’s not surprising that Instagram did the same.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said that “It’s a long time coming, but we’re excited to share a new tool that empowers those in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Videos on Instagram will now have auto-generated captions, where you have the option to turn them off or on.”

Captioning on Instagram: Instagram's auto-captions, two phones showing settings
Image Credit: Instagram

 

What is wrong with Instagram’s Auto-Captions?

Even though it is a late but great feature, it’s still not good enough.

Let’s learn all about captioning on Instagram. Here are all the features that it’s currently missing.

 

1. Customization:

Your videos on Instagram feed will have black and white text captions along the bottom of the screen and you cannot change the font, size or location. You cannot change the color of the text either. Needless to say, you can do all of those and more on Subcap. You can also add emojis to your captions.

 

2. Editing:

You don’t have the option to edit the auto-captions on Instagram.  They will be auto-generated and that means lots of wrong captions which are doomed to become funny memes. Don’t risk it and edit your captions via Subcap.

 

3. Limited Language Options:

Instagram’s auto-generated captions are only available in 17 languages for now. Subcap supports 125 languages and their variants with great accuracy.

 

4. No Auto-Captioning for Stories or Reels:

Instagram hasn’t made any announcements about the auto-captions feature for Stories and Reels. In the meantime, you can use Subcap and post your videos on every social media platform including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram Reels and Stories, Facebook, Twitter or via E-Mail, Whatsapp, etc.

As you can see above, Instagram’s auto-captioning feature is great for accessibility and more. However, it’s not quite there yet.

Subcap is perfect for captioning on Instagram. If you’d like to try Subcap, click the links below.

iOS

Android

If you’d like to know why it’s a good idea to caption all your videos, read our blog post about it.

Why You Should Always Add Subtitles to Your Videos

 

Why You Should Always Add Subtitles to Your Videos

Did you know…

that 6% of the world’s population is affected by deafness or hearing loss?

that 85% of all social media videos are watched without sound?

that videos with subtitles are 80% more likely to be watched in full?

According to Forbes, 78% of consumers’ purchases are impacted by companies’ social media posts. For that matter, it’s really to your benefit to connect with as many social media users as possible, including people with disabilities.

While the main use of accessibility features is to enable people with disabilities to use social media, using them properly provides more business benefits, such as greater reach, higher engagement and better SEO. Because not only the deaf community but also everyone who uses social media actively can benefit from readable videos.

85% of videos are watched without sound.  For this reason, subtitles can help boost your SEO and even improve brand recall by enabling search engines to crawl and index your videos. Despite all these benefits, only 36% of organizations add subtitles to all their video content. Wouldn’t you want to make a difference and get ahead?

 

 

So,  let’s sum up…

✅ Get 17% more reactions compared to non-subtitled videos 

✅ Get 26% more CTA clicks compared to non-subtitled videos

✅ Get 35% more viewers compared to non-subtitled videos

✅ Engage with 85% of viewers who don’t have their sound on

✅ Make your contents accessible to more than 400 million deaf people

✅ Increase your watch time and boost your ranking by 15%

✅ Connect with your viewers

✅ Instantly build more relationship

✅ Increase engagement rates 

✅ Create scroll-stopping videos 

✅ Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and more. Stories, ads? Them too.

✅ Get more clicks, sales and conversions

✅ Waste less time on creating subtitles and captions manually

✅ Improve SEO, index your videos in multiple languages

 

You want to add subtitles but you think you don’t have enough time for it? Why don’t you try an auto-subtitle app like Subcap?

Subcap allows you to shoot a video simultaneously or upload a video from the gallery. It automatically transcribes the audio to text which you can edit or copy. Subcap’s auto-captions maker uses artificial intelligence to generate subtitles with perfect accuracy. Subtitles can be added in different colors, fonts, or positions according to selection. With Subcap, you can easily and automatically add subtitles to your videos not only in English but also in 125 languages and variants.

Subcap is free to download and includes in-app purchases. If no subscription is purchased, you can manually add subtitles to your videos. During your subscription period, you don’t have to pay for anything extra, so no bad surprises!

 

10 Apps that Every Content Creator Should Know

Whether you are a content creator or just a regular social media user, creating content and dealing with social media every day can be tiring. It also takes so much time and effort. And let’s admit that the content we see on social media has become a little too familiar.

Thankfully, there are a bunch of tools out there to make content creation easier for us all. So we are here to share 10 apps for you to stand out from the crowd and have the best content for your followers.

1. Evernote

Evernote for content creators

Evernote has everything you need to organize your life. Great notetaking, project planning, and an easy way to find what you need, when you need it. 

With Evernote, you can work anywhere, remember everything, find things fast and get things done easily. All of this allows you to create entirely new types of content, meaningful and informative.

 

2. Buffer

buffer for content creators

Buffer is a platform where you can manage different social media channels. For each social media account, you can manage post scheduling, view the direct messages you receive and generate reports.

With the Buffer App, you can regularly follow the posts you will make on social media, set the time of your posts with the timer feature and see how much interaction your posts get.

 

3. Subcap

Sunbcap for content creators

We all know that most people don’t watch videos with the sound on, therefore adding subtitles in videos is a must.

Subcap is an automatic subtitle app for your videos. It’s easy to use, simple but brilliant. Its speech-to-text engine is the best on the market which transcribes your words accurately in 125 languages. You can use it for all social media videos.

Putting subtitles on your videos increases your engagement and makes your content reach more people. It also makes your videos accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing.

 

4. Canva

Canva for designs

Canva helps you create professional designs and graphics. You can edit photos, add text, elements, stickers, frames and more. There are also more than hundreds of professional templates that you can customize to suit your needs.

 

5. Snapseed

Snapseed for content creators

Snapseed is one of the very useful photo editing apps, only available for mobile devices. Snapseed allows you to edit your photos to improve their aesthetic quality. You can then save, share, and export your final edited photo.

Snapseed’s photo editing tools come pretty close to some of the features found in the professional and often costly image editors.

 

6. Splice

Splice for videos

GoPro’s Splice is a free video editing application that works on iPhone and iPad. It’s a powerful video editor with a lot of features such as trimming, cropping, effects, transitions, titles, speed controls, animations, and more. It even has a library of free music and sound effects.

 

7. All Hashtag

All Hashtag for content creators

All Hashtag is a hashtag generator for Instagram, Twitter, and other social media networks. You must enter a term to get hashtag recommendations that are relevant to that word.

This program will produce and evaluate thousands of relevant hashtags for you to copy and paste into your social media posts. This can help you increase the reach of your content and the visibility of your business on social media.

 

8. LifeLapse

Life Lapse for content creators

LifeLapse is a stop motion app with all the tools you need to record and edit stop motion animations. You can import photos and use the app’s video editing tools to adjust frame rates, apply visual effects, and create soundtracks from royalty-free songs.

If you don’t know anything about stop motion videos, don’t worry. LifeLapse developers have created in-app academy to help you learn how to create stop motion videos.

 

9. Grammarly

Grammarly for content creators

Grammarly scans a text you’ve written and checks for any errors. The free version covers the basics (grammar, punctuation, and spelling) but the premium version goes a step further by providing stylistic and best writing practice recommendations.

It helps users write error-free content on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and almost anywhere else.

 

10. Typeform

Typeform for content creators

Doing surveys is a great way to prompt engagement on social media. Typeform is an easy-to-use quiz, form, and survey builder that allows you to ask your audience questions in a variety of formats, including image-based, multi-choice, short answers, yes or no.

Once your quiz is ready, you can share it on social media platforms or share the link.