Learn how to use automated and manual captions on TikTok.
Switch on automated captions
Automated captions are only available for some content. To display these captions:
- Long press on a clear part of the screen to bring up the menu
- Select ‘Captions and translations’
- Toggle right the ‘Show captions’ option
If automatically generated captions are not available for a video, the label for the ‘Show captions’ option is displayed as ‘Show captions (unavailable)’. The setting can still be changed but captions won’t be shown for the video you are editing.
Create captions
TikTok can autogenerate captions, but in our tests, it only works on the mobile app, not on the web interface accessed on a computer.
They also only seem to be created when you choose to overlay captions manually. The option to overlay captions is available when videos are recorded by tapping one for the timed record options, not when pressing and holding the record button.
Manual captions
- Select the ‘+’ icon at the bottom of the screen and then select ‘create’.
- Select the captions icon
- Select ‘New video’, upload your video, then select the captions icon
- In the Edit Captions section, tap on the caption text to edit the text, including splitting it into smaller chunks, if required.
- Select the ‘A’ and ‘Tt’ icons to adjust the appearance and format of the captions. Ensure that there is sufficient contrast between the text and background so that it is easy for everyone to read.
- Click the ‘x’ icon to return to the Edit Captions screen.
- Press ‘x’ to return to the main post editing screen.
- Tap on the captions to select them and drag to an appropriate position on the screen, so they do not obscure the lips of anyone who is talking to camera.
- Select the red arrow at the top right to continue posting your video as usual.
