TikTok adds automatic captions to videos
The TikTok platform has taken a big step towards making its app more accessible by adding an automatic caption feature, which allows video creators to create subtitles for clips automatically.
TikTok users who wanted to make their videos easier to access had to manually write the captions, which could be time-consuming.
The option to add automatic captions appears on the editing page after uploading or recording the video.
- TikTok says: The feature will be available in American English and Japanese initially, but plans to add support for more languages in the coming months.
- The platform adds the feature to make TikTok videos easier for deaf and hard of hearing viewers watch.
However, the TikTok dialog also says: The feature is useful for anyone watching videos when it is difficult or uncomfortable to listen to audio.
Content creators can modify captions after they are created automatically to fix any errors, and viewers can turn off captions via the captions button on the share panel.
As auto-copy technology has improved over the years, services have increased their addition to their programs to make content more accessible.
Last month, Google included the feature in the Chrome browser, which allows it to create captions for the audio that is played through the browser.
The company's Live Caption system is also available as a system-wide feature for select Android devices.
Video chatting services such as Zoom and Google Meet can create automatic captions during calls, and it also appears that the Instagram platform is testing a similar feature for its videos.
It's mentioned that automatic captions via TikTok are the most recent accessibility feature the app adds.
The app also warns content creators of videos that may trigger photosensitivity epilepsy and provides filters for viewers to avoid these videos, and the text-to-speech feature was added late last year.