How to Add Captions to TikTok in 2025

Captions are a game-changer for TikTok creators, making your videos more accessible, engaging, and discoverable. Whether you're looking to reach a broader audience, improve accessibility for viewers with hearing impairments, or simply make your content more engaging, adding captions is a must. In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about how to add captions to TikTok, from using the app's built-in auto-caption feature to customizing text for a unique touch.

Way 1: Use TikTok's Built-in Captioning Tool to Add Subtitles

The quickest and simplest method is to utilize TikTok's built-in auto-caption feature.

TikTok employs speech recognition technology to convert video audio into text, which appears as on-screen captions. This tool also allows you to easily review and make adjustments to the auto-generated captions. Follow these steps to auto-captions TikTok videos but proofread to correct any caption errors before publishing the content.

Step 1: Record or Upload Your Content

Click on the "+" icon to start recording a video directly in the TikTok app. You can also upload a pre-recorded video to the app from your gallery. To upload a video, click the box at the bottom right corner of the screen to open your gallery, then select the video to upload. After adding the video, click the "Next" button.

Step 2: Turn On Captions Feature

Click on your profile then tap the "Drafts" folder to access your record or prerecorded video. Select the video to add captions by clicking on it. Now tap the "Captions" option. Wait for the audio to be processed and your captions will be ready.

Step 3: Review and Edit the Captions

Click on the captions then tap the "Play" button to check if the captions match the video content. If they don't match, retype captions to make changes. After reviewing and making your changes, click "Save" to save your video with captions.

Step 4: Post TikTok Video with Captions

Click the "Next" button, enter the video description and hashtags, and then press "Post" to share your TikTok video.

Pros:

Automatically generates captions, eliminating the need for manual transcription.
Integrated directly into the app, making it accessible and user-friendly.
Allows users to review and edit captions for accuracy.

Cons

Speech recognition may misinterpret words, especially with accents, background noise, or complex terminology.
Offers limited control over font style, size, or placement compared to manual captioning tools.
May not support all languages or dialects effectively.
Often requires manual correction, which can be time-consuming.

Way 2: Add Captions to TikTok Manually

You can also manually add captions using the Add Text feature within TikTok's editor. This method is ideal if you want greater control over the timing of your captions, include additional commentary, or transcribe videos in languages other than English.

Step 1:Launch TikTok and add video. After launching the TikTok app then select the video to add captions. You can also opt to record a video.
Step 2:Add captions manually. Click the "Text" icon on the right side of the menu and type your caption.
Step 3:Use the text editing features to customize the text by changing its color, font, style, and text position on the video.
Step 4:Set text timeline. Tap the text and adjust the timeline to set its appearance duration. This will determine how long each caption appears on the video frame.
Step 6:Preview to typos. Tap the video to play to check typos and then tap "Next" to proceed.
Step 7:Add hashtags and post the video. Add relevant TikTok hashtags then tap "Post" to post your video.

Pros of Adding Captions to TikTok Manually:

You can decide exactly when and where captions appear on the screen.
Ability to choose font styles, colors, and sizes to match your video's aesthetic.
Ensures captions are precise, especially for complex terms, slang, or accents.
Easily transcribe content in any language, not limited to TikTok's auto-caption language options.

Cons of Adding Captions to TikTok Manually:

Requires more effort and time compared to using auto-captions.
Typing out captions for longer videos can be labor-intensive.
Ensuring captions align perfectly with the audio can be tricky.
Manual captions may lack uniformity if not carefully formatted.
Requires basic video editing skills to make captions look professional.

Way 3: Add Subtitles on TikTok with Third-party Software

With a professional video subtitling tool, the chances of increasing your views and followers are higher. Considering the proven advantages of adding subtitles to TikTok videos, you need a video subtitle editor for pc to make it easier to add subtitles. Short or long videos require subtitles for purposes of inclusivity.

HitPaw Univd is a versatile video converter that's designed to help content creators add subtitles to videos. This professional software supports adding either SRT, SSA, ASS, or VTT. It's easy to add any of these types of subtitles to your videos.

How to Convert Video to Subtitle

You can convert TikTok Video to subtitle in Unid with simple steps:

Step 1.Launch HitPaw Univd, and find the Speech to Text feature on the main interface.
Step 2.Import your TikTok Video, and select the output format: Plain text or Subtitle.
Step 3.Next, select an output language that you want to convert the video into.
Step 4.Click the Create button to start generating a subtitle file.
Step 5.Finally, import the subtitle file to computer.

How to Add Subtitle to TikTok Video using HitPaw Univd

Here's how to add subtitles to TikTok videos using HitPaw Univd:

Step 1:In the Converter tab, you can import a video or multiple videos to HitPaw Univd. After the files are imported, you can click the subtitle button.
Step 2.Click "Add Subtitles" to upload an external subtitle file (SRT, ASS, VTT, or SSA). The subtitles you import will appear in sequence in descending order. You can choose to keep all the subtitles or delete the unwanted ones.
Step 3:TikTok supports MP4 format in H264 codec. If the video is not compatible with TikTok, please click the Convert all to option and select a supported output format.
Step 4:Now click "Convert" or "Convert All" for batch conversion. This program will start converting your TikTok video with the updated subtitles.
Step 5.After conversion, you can access to the output video from the Converted tab. Now, you can upload the video to TikTok with subtitle directly.

FAQs on How to Add Captions on TikTok

Q1. Can You Add Captions to Tiktok After Posting?

A1. Unfortunately, you can't add captions to TikTok after posting. Once you've posted a TikTok video with captions, the platform doesn't offer a way to add other captions. Your only option is to unrepost, and edit the captions or delete and add new captions.

Q2. How Do I Turn on Captions on TikTok?

A2. If captions on TikTok aren't closed, you can turn them on/off. To turn captions on TikTok on and off, tap the 'Captions' button on/off.

Q3. How Do I Add Text in a TikTok Video?

A3. To add text to a TikTok video, open the TikTok app and select the "+" icon to upload or create a new video. Next, select the "Text" in the editor, add the text, and adjust it. Set text duration and match text with video.

Conclusion

We've highlighted three different ways how to add subtitles and captions to TikTok videos. Using TikTok's built-in caption editor to add captions is simple but prone to errors. The recommended way to add captions on TikTok is by using a subtitling editor tool like HitPaw Univd. This versatile program not only supporting converting videos to subtitle, but also adding subtitles to videos.

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