Add captions and subtitles to your videos.

You don’t have to do anything. But it’s a good idea to add captions for your audience and content's sake. Captions increase engagement and attract audiences who are hard of hearing or those who prefer to watch content with the sound off. Plus, search engines use closed captions to categorize and rank your content. By including relevant keywords, you can target your audience better.

With Riverside, of course. Riverside automatically generates a transcript of your recording. All you have to do is click on the captions icon (inside the Editor) and choose one of the five styles available. Doing this adds captions to the video instantly. Then, you can choose a font, font size, color, the type of alignment you prefer, and where on the screen you want captions to appear (bottom, top, etc.).

To be fair, there are more ways to add captions other than with Riverside. Check out our full guide on adding captions to videos for a full recap.

We have an entire article on captions vs. subtitles.

But, in short, they both display audio as written text, generally at the bottom of a video screen. The difference is that subtitles only convey audible dialogue, while captions include dialogue and other sounds, such as laughter or a door shutting.

People got used to calling subtitles in the same language as the audio - captions, which led to some confusion. This explains why most people also refer to social media subtitles as captions. Riverside follows this as well.

First, rest assured that both make your content more accessible and watchable. It all depends on what you want to do with your video.

Open captions are ‘burned’ onto your video file and work best for social media. They’re always on display and help increase your engagement. Many people scroll through social media without sound on, so including open captions makes it more likely they’ll watch through your content.

With closed captions, you’d upload a ‘side-car’ transcript file separate from your actual video. Viewers can then turn on or off captions at their preference. Closed captions help content rank higher in search results because search engines can access and analyze them to categorize your content. Note that you’ll need a compatible platform to add closed captions.

To help you make an informed decision, read more in our guide on closed vs. open captions.

All of these platforms have an auto-caption feature that works similarly. We have complete guides on captioning with TikTok, YouTube & Instagram.

While their built-in tools are simple to use if you’re recording in the app, they’re not the most accurate. This is especially true for languages other than English, regional accents, and English dialects. So, we’d suggest using a dedicated transcription tool.

With Riverside, you can transcribe your videos straight after recording, all in one place. Doing so spares you from having to do it separately on every platform you upload to, ensuring that you’re consistent throughout the social realm.

Sure! Once you upload a file to Riverside, you can use the Editor to caption your video and then style it as you wish.

If you’d like to add captions or subtitles to a video published online that’s not yours, you may be able to turn on closed captions. Look for a CC button, or check out the platform's settings.