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Read This Now: TikTok’s Updated Auto-Caption Functionality

TikTok released a new auto-captions functionality, and I’m not quite sure what to think about it, to be honest.

October 03, 2022

TikTok released a new auto-captions functionality, and I’m not quite sure what to think about it, to be honest. As with many new features, there are pros and cons, which I’ll address below. It will take some getting used to, but it’s obviously something with which you’ll want to experiment. Watch the TikTok below and read more.

  1. Record your TikTok as normal. Once you’ve finished, look to the right-hand side to see if there is an “auto-caption” prompt there.

  2. By default, the captions look like the regular text you would add to a video as normal. But you can go in and edit the size and font or to add a box to make them more prominent.

  3. You can also move them around to make sure they don’t interfere with anything on screen.

  4. Also, you can go into the full transcript and edit anything that didn’t transcribe correctly

Why I like it:

  • It’s a great way to make your content accessible for people who have hearing difficulties

  • With the new search engine optimization on TikTok, it will help make your content searchable

  • The ability to edit directly and change the size and placement makes sure they are complementary, not something blocking what’s on screen

What needs improvement

  • With the previous caption functionality, viewers had the ability to hide the captions if your TikTok’s also had other text on the screen. As far as I have been able to tell, this functionality has disappeared with the updated captions. Hopefully they restore it or figure out another way to avoid having too much text on screen.

  • As you can tell from my tutorial, sometimes the old captions showed up, creating “double captions.” I assume that’s just a bug that will be fixed soon, but it’s annoying right now.

As with all new features, it’s clearly a work in progress. I’ll play around with them some more and see if I end up thinking they’re better than the old way. But it’s likely here to stay, so let’s get used to them. Let me know your thoughts below!