YouTube is really the platform that popularized auto-generated captions for online platforms. This prompted other platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to follow suit. Now, it’s pretty much essential for platforms to bring this feature.
Now, TikTok lets the viewers enable closed captions
You’ve been able to see closed captions while scrolling through your TikTok feed. However, it was pretty hit or miss whether the video you’re watching actually has them. Obviously, if the speech is incoherent (or only involved that dumb laughing sound effect), then you shouldn’t expect any captions. But, there are videos capable of having captions that don’t have them. This is because whether you see them or not depends on the creator. The creator has the ability to enable closed captions for the video. So, if the creator happens to forget, then the video won’t have any. What makes this worse is that the creator can not go back and enable them. The creator would have to delete the video and repost it if they want the feature. Now, according to a new blog post from the company, TikTok will finally let viewers enable the closed captions. When you’re watching a video, you’ll see a little captions icon on the lower-left side of the screen. Tapping that will turn on the captions.
But wait, there’s more!
You’ve enabled closed captions, but what if the person is talking in a different language? Well, TikTok now has some new translation tools. Firstly, the platform will actually translate those closed captions. It can translate a select number of languages. You’re not only able to translate the captions, you’re also able to translate stickers, and the text blocks. This means that you’ll be able to read whatever’s going on in the video.
