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how to add captions to youtube shorts
May 21, 2023 Mixcord, Inc.

How to Add Captions to YouTube Shorts

Wondering how to add captions to YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts is YouTube’s popular short-form content arm, and it’s also one of the most impactful ways that industry leaders are connecting with their audience. Current statistics estimate that this area of the platform sees engagement from 1.5 billion logged-in users per day, making this an extremely lucrative and worthwhile option to pursue in your holistic marketing strategy. 

Once you answer the question of “What are YouTube Shorts?” It's time to move to the next step: Creating content and making your content as accessible as possible. This is best done by learning how to add captions to YouTube shorts. 

Below, we explore:

  • Reasons to use YouTube Shorts captions
  • The available methods to add captions to YouTube shorts
  • The steps to add YouTube Shorts captions to your content

Why Add YouTube Shorts Captions?

Many content creators wonder if you can add subtitles to YouTube videos.The answer to this question is yes. But why should you? 

There are far more benefits content creators can gain when they take the time to be as clear and accessible as possible. Adding YouTube Shorts captions, learning how to add caption to YouTube Shorts and how to add captions on your long-form YouTube content are the best possible ways to do this. 

Here are a few other benefits you’ll encounter when you take the time to refine and optimize your YouTube content. 

    • Greater viewer engagement: Viewer engagement goes up when videos are well put together. Captions can increase engagement and view time, offering new ways for your viewers to connect with your content. 
    • Support for disabled viewers: Those experiencing Deafness or are Hard of Hearing will be able to properly consume your content when social media accessibility tools are in place, such as captions. 
  • New YouTube SEO opportunities: YouTube crawlers can determine whether or not there are captions in your videos. With captions enabled, you have a breadth of crawlable keywords for your content, which can improve topical relevance, algorithmic performance, expose your content to new viewers searching for your topic more easily, and potentially improve your content rankings. You can benefit additionally from using your transcript or captions to create accurate and detailed video descriptions. 
  • Increased reach for global viewers: If you are targeting a global audience, optimizing your YouTube content using a subtitle translator on your in-video captions allows a greater degree of engagement through native language translation. 
  • Approximately 84% of YouTube site visitors are from outside of the U.S., many of whom may not understand English. With captions and translation options, global viewers enjoy a greater understanding of your content, empowering them to follow along for more.
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    How To Add Captions to YouTube Shorts Content

    Learning how to add captions to YouTube Shorts is a valuable skill that will get you a positive return, as YouTube is one of the most competitive types of social media platforms currently available for creators to publish on.

    Captions are a contending factor in short form media battles between YouTube Shorts vs. TikTok videos, winning loyal audience members over with easy-to-follow storylines told by optimized and personalized captions. 

    There are many ways you can caption your video content using YouTube Shorts captions, including: 

    • Manually entering captions using YouTube Studio
    • Relying on auto captions generated by YouTube
    • Using an app to add open captions that appear directly on the video
    • Uploading SRT files to accurately add captions to YouTube Shorts

    After you start with YouTube Shorts captions, you can then apply captioning  to all content that you publish on the YouTube platform. 

    Manually Add YouTube Shorts Captions Using YouTube Studio

    Some of the best captions for YouTube shorts come from this method, allowing creators a certain degree of personalization and freedom of expression that they wouldn’t have with other methods. Here’s how you can manually add YouTube Shorts captions using YouTube Studio: 

  • Sign into YouTube Studio. You may not need to do this if you have logged in previously. 
  • Click on Subtitles. This is on the left side of your screen. 
  • Select your Video. You may only use this method on one video at a time. 
  • Click Add Language. A prompt to choose your language will appear on the screen. Select accordingly from the toggle menu. 
  • Click Add. This is under the Subtitles area of your menu. 

    • You will then choose your method of captioning your YouTube content. There are four ways to choose from: 

    • File upload
    • Auto-sync
    • Auto-translate 
    • Manual add*

    *For the purposes of these instructions, we address how to do this step manually. 

  • Click Type Manually. Choose to paste your transcript or manually type in your subtitles in the provided dialog box. 
  • Accentuate your Subtitles. Notations, such as [applause] that describe whatever is heard in the background help you create higher-quality subtitles for the viewer’s experience.
  • Click Publish. Your video is ready for upload.

    • Rely on Auto Captions From YouTube

    YouTube offers automatic captioning (learn more about it here), which is a convenient option for creators who wish to caption their videos in a time-efficient way. However, there are a few downfalls to this method to think about before auto-captioning is in your social media marketing toolbox.

    These automatic captions currently offer limited translation options, which may limit your reach and exclude certain audiences. Additionally, they may be incorrect, or lack certain storytelling components that audience members gain when you optimize your own captions. 

    We’ve compiled a list of the steps below for creators who wish to use auto captions for their YouTube Shorts content: 

  • Sign into YouTube Studio. You may not have to do this if you have logged in previously. 
  • Click on Subtitles. This is on the left side of your screen. 
  • Select your Video. You may only use this method on one video at a time. 
  • Click More. (next to the ellipses) This is under the Subtitles Menu and takes you to the automatic captioning area of the Studio.
  • Review, Edit and Optimize your Captions. Keep a sharp eye for subtitles that aren’t translated properly, or that don’t add value to your audience like “um”s.

    • Add Captions to YouTube Shorts Using MixCaptions

    Creators enjoy using third-party video caption apps for the best YouTube Shorts captions (such as MixCaptions) to subtitle their videos. It’s an efficient, financially-savvy way to save time and resources during the content creation process. 

    Here are the steps to take to add captions to YouTube Shorts using MixCaptions. 

  • Download MixCaptions. Find it conveniently on the iOS, Android or Mac Desktop app stores. 
  • Add a New Project. Follow the steps on-screen to select and upload your clip of choice. 
  • Tap on Caption. This is in the bottom left corner of your screen. 
  • Select your Language. After you’ve chosen your language, tap on Generate Captions. 
  • Edit and Optimize your Captions. Feel free to add notations, such as [applause] that describe whatever is heard in the background to help you create higher-quality subtitles for the viewer’s experience.

    • Use SRT Files to Add Captions to YouTube Shorts Videos

    Creators use .SRT files to add, style and edit closed captions to their YouTube video content, either as a standalone method or as a result of .SRT file content obtained from third-party tools like MixCaptions. 

    If you opt for this method, having MixCaptions compile the .SRT file makes for a more efficient process — leaving you to simply upload and optimize your subtitles. 

    Here’s how to upload an .SRT file for caption use in the YouTube Creator Studio:

  • Sign into YouTube Studio. You may not do this if you have logged in previously. 
  • Click on Subtitles. This is on the left side of your screen. 
  • Select your video. You may only use this method on one video at a time. 
  • Click Add Language. A prompt to choose your language will appear on the screen. Select accordingly from the toggle menu. 
  • Click Add. This is under the Subtitles area of your menu. 
  • Click Upload File. Choose your .SRT file from your file finder or navigation tool. 
  • Toggle your timing. Select With Timing or Without Timing. Follow the on-screen prompts to save and publish your work. 

    • New to SRT files? We’ve put together a great guide on how to use them to create and polish subtitles for your viewers: How to create an SRT file

    Filed in: add captions to video, add subtitles, add subtitles to video, captions, captions for talking videos, closed caption, closed captioning, free video editor, free video editors, how to add captions on reels, how to add captions on tiktok, how to add subtitles to a video, instagram, instagram reels, instagram tts, shorts, social media, TikTok, tiktok tts, video editing, Video Editor, video editors, video maker, YouTube, youtube monetization, youtube shorts, youtube shorts monetization
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