This New Instagram Sticker Lets You Automatically Caption Your Stories

A new sticker automatically transcribes speech in videos so you can automatically caption your Instagram Stories.

The sticker will be available only in “English and English-speaking countries” for now but will eventually roll out to other languages and countries.

Adding captions not only makes your video Stories more engaging but also makes them more accessible. Instagram says it will also start testing automated captions in Reels soon. The sticker, however, is already available for Instagram Stories.

Captions will help to engage with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also users who are not native English speakers or simply prefer watching videos without sound.

NEW! @Instagram has added a ‘Captions’ sticker for Stories
You can now auto-caption videos in stories with a range of different styles… pic.twitter.com/cijk7nWGC3
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) March 9, 2021

Like with other text and stickers options in Stories, users can adjust the style and color of the captions after they have been generated. Users can also it individual words in the captions to correct spelling, punctuation, or any transcription that is not accurate. However, the new sticker/feature lacks the option to highlight text for better visual contrast. You will have to be creative and use the draw tool to make them easier to read.

Auto-captions have become an important part of platforms as the Internet is making an effort to be more inclusive. Other platforms and services like Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams have recently added or improve auto-captioning. Google also expanded its Live Caption feature across the Chrome browser in March, and TikTok launched auto-captions for American English and Japanese in April. On Monday, it was Twitter that announced it is working on improving the captions in Spaces.