When creating a video, sometimes you need to add subtitles. This can be done when editing a video on your computer or on your phone.

In this article we’ll analyze the applications for adding subtitles to videos on Android and iPhone and their main features.

Why add subtitles to your video

Some authors don’t think about subtitles when creating video content at all. Or they don’t think they are needed. But sometimes people watch videos without sound (most often from a phone). For example, when riding the subway. Audio can also be disabled at the site by default, or the user has disabled it himself in the app settings. For the user to specifically want to turn on the sound when viewing a particular post, they need to be interested in the video. And that doesn’t always work.

Without sound and titles, the audience can miss important information. And then there are people with hearing loss, and they could also be viewers of your content.

Okay, YouTube and VK Videos have automatic subtitles and you don’t need a third-party app to generate them. Artificial intelligence recognizes the language used in the video and converts the voice to text. You can change the subtitle language as well as edit the text in Creative Studio in the video editing section. This is important, because the AI often makes mistakes and results in gibberish. This is especially noticeable in videos in Russian. You can also upload your own pre-prepared subtitles to YouTube.

In addition to YouTube videos and shorts, users watch a lot of video content on other platforms. And you should still add subtitles for them separately.

We tell you what applications to use. There are applications which work on the principle of automatic captioning on YouTube (i.e. they convert the voice to text by themselves), and there are applications where you can simply add text over the top of the video manually. Consider both options.

5 apps to create subtitles on Android

What to use for owners of Android devices:

Kaptioned – Automatic Subtitles for Videos

As the name suggests, the Kaptioned app creates automatic subtitles. By converting the voice into text. You can change the font, text color, add a colored background for subtitles. Of the disadvantages – you can not change the horizontal alignment of the text, that is, subtitles are placed only in the center.

FilmoraGo Video Editor

FilmoraGo is a mobile video editor from the creators of Wondershare Filmora (video editing software for computers). Adding text on top of your video is just one of the features, so you can use the app for full-fledged editing. Several fonts are available for subtitles. In addition to adding text there are effects, stickers, its own music library, overlays, modern transitions. You can export videos in HD quality and 1080p resolution.

Film Maker Pro

Film Maker Pro is the video editor equivalent of FilmoraGo. It is also a video editor, but less well-known. For the text, there are more than 100 fonts + there are separate templates for subtitles. In addition to the text in the editor has more than 50 filters and more than 100 additional effects. As well as music and transitions. In Film Maker Pro, you can even work with a built-in tool to replace the background. Free export of video in 720p, 1080p, 4K format.

Voicella

Voicella is an app for automatically creating subtitles. In addition to them, text translation in more than 40 languages is supported. Accordingly, there are 2 functions: “Add subtitles” and “Translate and add subtitles”. Autotranslate can be edited – you can correct or delete some words. There is also an editor of the text itself – you can change the font, change the color and add a background bar.

Add text on video and trim the video. Editor by Oddyssey Apps Ltd.

This editor allows you to add ext on top of your video and set its duration. There are fonts and color palette. This is a mini editing program and in addition to text, you can add stickers, draw with a pencil over the video and trim the video.

5 applications for adding subtitles to videos on iPhone

What to use for owners of iPhones and iPads:

Clips

Clips is a mobile editor created by Apple. Released back in 2017, but continues to be popular. It’s ideal for captioning because it automatically generates animated captions based on the speaker’s speech. They are displayed on the screen synchronously with the user’s voice to the rhythm of their speech. That is, there is no need to specifically animate the text or set its duration. In addition to adding subtitles, the app has effects, stickers, emoji, and music. You can also find augmented reality effects in Clips. There is an option to shoot selfie scenes inside 360-degree video panoramas. The latest version of the app requires iOS 14.5 or newer.

iMovie

iMovie is one of the most popular video editors on iOS, and it was also created by Apple Corporation. It has ready-made video scene templates with titles, transitions, filters, and music. The text can change the font, color, size and location. You can save videos at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. Or you can immediately export your videos to social networks.

Clipomatic

Clipomatic is an app for creating subtitles. Like Clips, it recognizes speech and creates automatic titles. It has a voice recording button. Several styles are available for text. The app recognizes more than 40 of the most popular languages. There are also filters and emoji for additional editing. There are 3 main tools available for recording videos and adding subtitles: “Camera”, “Microphone” and “Speech Recognition”.

MixCaptions: Subtitles for Videos

MixCaptions is another application for automatically adding subtitles. It’s simpler than the previous ones, it creates minimalistic white text on a semi-transparent placeholder. But it can’t be called a disadvantage because the subtitles do not attract your attention. That means they won’t distract viewers from watching the video. There are other fonts, and if you want you can make the text in color. Subtitles are added to the finished video up to 10 minutes long. You can change the location of the text (bottom, top or center of the video). The application recognizes 23 languages.

Overvideo

Overvideo is a mini video editor for quick video creation. It works simply – choose a clip on your phone, write text manually, add music, save. More than 100 stylish fonts are available for editing subtitles, you can adjust text size and add effects.

Conclusion

Use captions where it’s needed – in conversational videos, interviews, clips with closed captioning, for processing reports, where there is translation of foreign videos. This is especially true for videos for social networks. For creating automatic subtitles are suitable applications Kaptioned, Voicella (both for Android), Clips, Clipomatic, MixCaptions (3 applications for iOS). But don’t fully rely on subtitle autogenerators – in most cases, the text in them needs to be additionally edited.

For videos where there are complex terminology, words are not pronounced clearly or the video has a quiet sound, it’s better to use editors where you can manually add pre-prepared text. These are FilmoraGo, iMovie, and similar applications.