Instagram introduces a new feature for stories: automatic subtitles for those who are hard of hearing or simply can't turn up the volume.
With the new auto-captions, Instagram inserts automatic subtitles in Stories, through the use of stickers made available by the platform. The new feature that allows you to have the full transcript of the video is in addition to the counterpart already present on IGTV and messaging app Threads.
The auto-captions of Instagram allow, therefore, to always have available subtitles ready within the stories, without requiring the complete hand insertion of what is said during the short videos uploaded to Instagram. This is a useful innovation, especially for that segment of the public that is deaf or hard of hearing that, in this way, can have a complete perception of the content published by users of the social network based on visual communication. But also for those who are watching a story with the volume low or turned off, and can now know what the person who posted it is saying. Despite the giant step, however, this is not the first platform to take this important step dedicated to accessibility.
Instagram auto-captions, how they work
Useable in the Stories, the stickers dedicated to auto-captions capture what the protagonists of the videos pronounced reporting it, in fact, in words. The user, before publication, can edit the text shown, correcting the spelling of words and punctuation as a result of incorrect transcription by the platform.
In addition, to adapt it to the style of the story and improve readability, the sticker also allows you to act directly on the appearance of the words. In just a few taps and immediately after the text is generated, you can change the style and color to make it more harmonious and appealing within the story.
Currently, the auto-captions service is only available in English but, in the future, it will certainly be extended to other countries through the recognition of additional languages. In a shorter time, right after the testing phase that will start in the next few days, the feature will be extended also to the Reels of the platform.
Instagram auto-captures, already seen on TikTok?
As anticipated, that of auto-captions is not a novelty exclusive to Instagram. In fact, only last month TikTok had implemented a similar system available for English and Japanese languages, integrating with the text-to-speech feature already present. On Monday, Twitter introduced the possibility of inserting subtitles in its newborn Spaces.
Not to be outdone was Apple, which, with the iOS update to version 14.5, added automatic subtitles to the Clips app, with the possibility of transcription from different languages.