Adding captions is one of the most effective ways to improve your video marketing strategy. This applies even on social media platforms such as Snapchat, where the user experience is made of short, engaging videos.
If you want to up your content creation game, you have to learn these two methods of how to add captions on Snapchat.
Why you should add captions to your Snapchat videos
Snapchat stories last less than ten seconds, so adding captions may seem redundant or tedious. However, having captions on your stories can be very beneficial to you because it increases their accessibility, particularly by making them more consumable by:
Non-native language speakers. You may have viewers who struggle with understanding the language you’re speaking in your stories.
Hearing-impaired. If the audio is complex or has subpar quality, or if you’re speaking too softly, people with hearing challenges may have a hard time enjoying your stories.
“Silent watchers.” There are now viewer demographics who watch content without audio. Having captions is the key to tapping into this audience.
Method one: Use Snapchat’s text tool
Snapchat has a built-in text tool with basic customization features that should be sufficient for most Snapchat users.
Here are the steps for using Snapchat’s built-in text tool to make captions:
1. Record your video on Snapchat.
2. Press the “T” symbol on the upper left to access the text tool.
3. Type your caption and set the font type, font color, font size, background color, and text alignment.
4. Press the “Set Duration” symbol.
5. Set the starting point and endpoint of the caption.
6. Press the yellow check button to exit the text tool.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 if adding other captions.
8. Review your captions.
9. Press “Send To” or the download button to finish.
Advantages
Fast and easy to do
Built into the Snapchat app
Disadvantages
Extremely limited font type options
Text duration feature is imprecise
The second method involves transcribing your video clips. If you’re a content creator who plans to make multiple Snapchat videos with captions, it can get tiring to do multiple transcriptions. Consider using FreeTranscriptions! to create your transcripts for you and make captioning your Snapchat videos easier.
Method two: Use a third-party video editor
If you find Snapchat’s built-in text tool to be very limited in font options, using a third-party video editor is an effective alternative for adding captions to your Snapchat videos.
Here is how you do it:
Record video clips (best on phone to follow 9:16 aspect ratio requirement).
Transcribe video clips using any text processor. Include the respective timecodes for each transcript line.
Open video editor of choice and import footage.
Order video clips and add other effects as desired.
Use built-in text tool to add captions.
Render final video (must be under 32 MB and last less than 10 seconds).
Transfer final video to mobile device with Snapchat installed.
Upload on Snapchat.
Advantages
Significantly more text options
You can time the text duration more precisely
Disadvantages
May take longer to do
Must follow Snapchat’s built-in video upload limits
Captioning your video content is very beneficial not only on Snapchat but for content creation in general. However, if you’re making longer forms of video content, you may find that it’s very tedious to transcribe your videos every time to create captions. Fortunately, you can take away the tedium by using a free automated transcription service like FreeTranscriptions! Simply upload the audio of your footage and immediately receive a machine transcript that can make captioning easier.