With the rise of tablets and smartphones, has come a subtitling revolution! For millions of viewers across the world, watching videos remotely has led to watching videos without sound, hence the need for subtitles. Whilst subtitle burning in very large font has become the standard across videos on social media generally, some platforms also offer other options for video sharers and vloggers. So here goes; in this blog, we’ll cover the options available when it comes to social media subtitling services for videos.
SRT files can be uploaded to create Facebook subtitles and if translations are available, users can select a number of languages. The go-to option for Facebook, however, due to the number of users viewing videos on handheld devices, is to burn in subtitles in a large, bright font to ensure full readability and instant access to audio content.
For years, Twitter videos would need to have burned in captions for viewers or otherwise no subtitles at all. Since March 2019, however, you can now add Twitter subtitles in SRT format for videos displaying on iPhone, Android or other devices.
When creating LinkedIn subtitles, users will need to upload an SRT file containing timed text. It’s recommended to avoid any issues with uploading the subtitle file, an SRT should be created prior to uploading your video and added simultaneously whilst publishing your content to the site.
YouTube
For well over a decade, YouTube has been the number one video sharing site online and YouTube is well ahead of the game in terms of translation and subtitling options and functionality. YouTube subtitles work in formats including SRT, SBV, WebVTT, DFXP, TTML, EBU-STL, CAP and SCC. We would recommend SRT format for most users as though the other formats can include styling and placement, some of this information may be lost on upload. YouTube translations are also an option, uploading your caption files in numerous languages, or subtitle burning can also be used, though it’s worth noting if used for translation, a separate video must be uploaded for each respective language.
Vimeo
Similar to YouTube, Vimeo as a video sharing site, is ahead of the game when it comes to closed caption functionality. Vimeo subtitles can be created in SRT, WebVTT, DFXP, TTML, SCC and SAMI format. For the best results, WebVTT is recommended, but as with all sites, subtitle burning is always an option to ensure captions display easily and clearly for all viewers.
Instagram, being a visual rather than sound based site, currently has no options for adding closed captioning to videos. For Instagram subtitles, users will need to burn subtitles into their videos, preferably in a font large enough to display clearer on small screens and handheld devices.
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