How to use video captions on Instagram

Learn how to switch on automated captions and create and adjust captions when using Instagram.

Switch on automated captions

Captions on reels and videos may not be available to everyone. They are not available on computers, only on mobile apps.

If captions are available, they’ll appear when you watch reels and videos in your feed. You can change this setting at any time:

On Android

Tap the profile icon or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
Select the icon with 3 horizontal lines.
Scroll down to the section headed ‘Your app and media’.
Select ‘Accessibility’, then select ‘Captions’.
Select ‘Always show closed captions’.

On iOS

Tap the profile icon or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
Select the icon with 3 horizontal lines in the top right, then select ‘Settings’.
Select ‘Accessibility’, then select ‘Captions’.
Switch captions off by moving the toggle left or on by moving the toggle right

Create captions

Instagram doesn’t currently have tools to add a pre-made caption file, but it can autogenerate closed captions. Before you share a video post on Instagram, captions can be controlled from the ‘New post’ or ‘New reel’ screen.

Note: if a video has embedded captions, the automated captions will overlap with them, making it hard to read either set of captions. We recommend switching automated captions off so you can read the embedded captions.

On Android

Select the New Post icon (the cross in the upper left corner).
Select Story or Reel and create or upload your video.
Once your video is ready, select the sticker icon (the smiley face icon) and then select the Captions sticker. You will get a notification that says, “Transcribing audio”.
Once the audio has finished transcribing, you can customize and edit the captions:- To edit, tap on the words to edit or change them. Select Done when they are correct.
– To change the style, select a caption style from the range of icons at the bottom of the screen.
– To change the colour, select the colour wheel icon at the top of the screen and choose a colour for the captions. Select Done when you are happy with the caption
Once you are happy with the look of the caption, select Done.
To move the position of the captions in the video, tap on the caption and drag to reposition it on the screen.
Continue to post the video as you usually would.

On iOS

Select the New Post icon (a cross in the upper left corner).
Select Story or Reel and create or upload your video.
Once your video is ready, select the sticker icon (the smiley face icon) and then select the Captions sticker. You will get a notification that says, “Transcribing audio”.
Once the audio has finished transcribing, you can customize and edit the captions:- To edit, tap on the words to edit or change them. Select Done when they are correct.
– To change the style, select a caption style from the icons at the bottom of the screen.
– To change the colour, select the colour wheel icon at the top of the screen and choose a colour for the captions. Select Done when you are happy with the caption
Once you are happy with the look of the caption, select Done.
To move the position of the captions in the video, tap on the caption and drag to reposition it on the screen.
Continue to post the video as you usually would.

If captions are available on video posts you share, they’ll automatically appear unless you turn them off.

On Android

Select the icon with 3 dots at the top of the video
Select ‘Edit’
Select ‘Advanced settings’
Where it says ‘Enable closed captions’, switch captions off by moving the toggle left

or on by moving the toggle right

On iOS

Select the icon with 3 dots at the top of the video
Select ‘Edit’.
Select ‘Advanced settings’. Where it says ‘Show captions’, switch captions off by moving the toggle left or on by moving the toggle right