Twitter recently announced that it is now introducing auto
captions for all videos uploaded within tweets on both iOS and Android.
Where are video captions when you need them? They’re here now automatically on videos uploaded starting today.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 14, 2021
Android & iOS: auto-captions will show on muted Tweet videos; keep them on when unmuted via your device's accessibility settings
Web: use the "CC" button to turn on/off pic.twitter.com/IHJAI31IvX
On the app version, captions will be generated for muted
videos within tweets, whereas on the desktop version, users will have the
option to turn the captions on or off for the videos, by tapping the CC button.
The auto captions for videos are available in 37 languages
and the captions on each user’s device will be displayed in the language that is
set on the device.
In addition to this, Twitter is working on translation as well as editing options for the auto captions.
The auto-generated captions are part of Twitter’s broader
push towards improving accessibility. The company had dedicated two new teams
last year for the development and enhancement of accessibility tools on the
platform. It was at that time that Twitter also received criticism for not including
captions for audio tweets, which the company has now taken into consideration.
Twitter’s auto captions are also available for Spaces, as
well as voice tweets. The captions are especially more valuable for regular
videos, though, considering the addition of the latest updated Explore tab that
displays tweets in a full-screen vertical scrolling format. Captions for video
content presented in this newly designed format will likely boost engagement with content, as the format is more visually aligned.
Moreover, auto captions for videos will contribute to
Twitter’s categorization and data, as the feature will provide insights into users’
engagement behavior and interests.
