During people’s free time, they work on their hobbies. That, or they find ways to relax. These days, one of the most popular ways to do that is by scrolling through social media such as Twitter.
Every minute, the millions of users on Twitter churn out content many as them. So indeed, you can find entertainment on the platform.
People also visit social media platforms while commuting to work or back to their homes. It allows them to catch up with the recent happenings in the world. Also, it prevents boredom – which makes the commute seem longer and more tiresome than they are.
There are different types of tweets. Some are text only, while some have media attached to them. As expected, video content seems to be the users’ favorite. However, for so many years, videos on Twitter were missing something important. They lacked auto-generated captions.
How to Turn on Twitter’s Auto-Generated Video Captions
Twitter has announced a new feature that will provide automatic captioning for videos on the platform. The company says that the feature is currently being rolled out to all users and should be available to everyone in the coming weeks.
To turn on the feature, simply go to the “Settings and privacy” section of your Twitter account and select “Video”. From there, you can enable or disable the auto-captioning option.
The captions are generated using machine learning and are designed to be as accurate as possible. However, it’s important to note that they are not perfect and will likely contain some errors.
If you find yourself frequently watching videos on Twitter, this new feature could be a useful way to get more out of them. It’s also worth noting that the captions will be available in any language that Twitter supports.
What’s with Auto-generated Captions (on newly uploaded videos)
It is great when you can hear what’s being said in the video clearly. But when you can’t do that, it is abysmal. One solution is to wear headphones. The problem is, that headphones are not always available. Maybe you forgot it at home. Or maybe yours were broken, and you haven’t bought a replacement yet. So what is the next “best” thing you can do? You can put the video on full blast. That will hopefully make it clearer. Though you can’t do that when in public places or at work, can you? You have to either keep the volume low or play the video muted in these places. Regardless of who you ask, they will tell you that it is not entertaining.
To really enjoy a video, you must understand what it tries to convey. Of course, that is impossible if you can barely hear the words it contains. This will not be much of an issue if all creators on Twitter add captions to their uploads. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
That is why the people on Twitter have been clamoring for an auto-generated captions feature. With it, people will be able to understand what’s happening on the video even if the volume is at zero. They can just read the captions. Automatically-generated captions are indeed the best solution to this problem.
Users have criticized Twitter for not giving them this feature. It is one of the so-called “social media giants,” after all. So surely, it has the resources to add auto-generated captions to videos. Actually, Twitter had already been using the technology in its audio-based service, Twitter Spaces. That proves that Twitter can do it. But – to the users’ disappointment – it just won’t.
Twitter Rolls Out Auto-generated Captions Helping The Deaf
Things have changed on December 15, 2021. Twitter rolled out the much-wanted feature. And because of that, everyone rejoiced.
This addition means that the issues mentioned above are no longer a problem. Plus, it makes videos on Twitter more accessible to hard of hearing or deaf people.
The auto-generated captions feature is available on the web, Android, and IOS. Furthermore, it will be available in not one, not two, but over 30 languages. That includes English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Hindi, and many more.
On mobile (Android and IOS), captions will automatically appear on muted videos. If you want to keep them even when the video is not muted, you can set that via your device’s accessibility settings. Meanwhile, you have to click the “CC” button on web browsers to turn it on or off.
With all that, we can conclude that this feature will change how people view videos on Twitter.
Finally, Twitter Followers Can Enjoy Videos on Twitter While Muted Without Sound
You can attribute this change to Twitter’s creation of a dedicated accessibility team in September of last year. The staffing change was done because of the criticism Twitter received after it piloted a voice tweet feature without auto-captions. That brought accessibility features like this and others such as image alt text to the company’s attention.
That sure is great news. But don’t have too high of an expectation. This feature still has imperfections. We’ve already seen savvy Twitter experts re-upload old, viral videos just to capture the auto-generated captions and re-allow the videos to go viral gaining thousands of Twitter followers in the process.
Unlike TikTok and Instagram Reels, the auto-generated captions on videos on Twitter are not editable. Thus, you can’t make corrections to the captions before posting the video. That hurts the accuracy of the captions.
It seems Twitter did this on purpose. The company notes that it saves a copy of audio content on Twitter Spaces, complete with the auto-generated captions. Twitter uses the said copies to check if the creator committed violations of its guidelines. The said copy will be with Twitter for thirty days. If the company saw there was a violation, the copy will remain with them for another 30 days. The extension is to hear the appeals of the users. It could be that Twitter plans to do the same for captions on videos. And thus, users cannot alter them.
Twitter Tests “Explore” Page Design That Resembles TikTok But Without Auto-Captions (Yet)
While the new Twitter handicapable functionality works across the site, it doesn’t yet work on their new TikTok style verticle exploration page.
Twitter is testing a feature that changes its “Explore” page. This change will turn the page into a vertical feed, similar to TikTok – it will serve one algorithm-recommended content at a time. That includes videos.
Twitter says it is revamping its “Explore” page to make things easier for you. In this new layout, you can find new interests, what’s happening, and new ways to unwind much quicker than before. Twitter describes it as a “visual-forward way to surface content that already exists on the platform. It is part of Twitter’s ongoing effort to improve discovery across the platform.
The newly added auto-generated captions feature could be useful in this new “Explore” page. It will make it easier to scroll through feeds.
That said, you can say that adding automatically-generated captions to videos is a huge step forward for Twitter. It makes a significant contribution to improving the user experience on Twitter. You really have to thank accessibility advocates for pushing for this feature. And kudos to the team on Twitter, too, for listening. Without their efforts, this may never have happened.
Twitter Videos with Auto-Captions Help The Deaf Understand and Enjoy Video Content
Twitter has announced a new feature that will automatic captioning for videos on the platform in an effort to help the deaf understand and enjoy video content. The company says that the feature is currently being rolled out to all users and should be available to everyone in the coming weeks.
To turn on the feature, simply go to the “Settings and privacy” section of your Twitter account and select “Video.” From there, you can enable or disable the auto-captioning option.
The captions are generated using machine learning and are designed to be as accurate as possible. However, it’s important to note that they are not perfect and will likely contain some errors.
If you find yourself frequently watching videos on Twitter, this new feature could be a useful way to get more out of them. It’s also worth noting that the captions will be available in any language that Twitter supports.
Overall, this is a great step by Twitter to help make their platform more accessible to those with hearing impairments. This will allow them to enjoy video content that they otherwise would not be able to understand.
How Did The Deaf Community Watch Videos Before Auto-Captions?
Before Twitter introduced automatic captions for videos, the deaf community had to rely on third-party services to generate them. This was often inaccurate and created a lot of frustration.
Now that Twitter has built this feature into its platform, it will be much easier for the deaf community to enjoy videos. This is a great step forward in making social media more accessible to everyone.
Do you think other social media platforms will follow suit and introduce similar features? Let us know in the comments below!