Instagram launches captions sticker for Stories

Instagram Stories now has a captions sticker that will auto-transcribe speech in the video.

Instagram new feature

Instagram has introduced a captions sticker for Stories. Instagram was spotted testing this feature in March this year. The new captions sticker in Stories will auto-caption speech in videos. Instagram is rolling out the captions sticker in select countries first, and plans to expand it soon. The company also plans on bringing captions to Reels.

The new feature is available in Stories, and it can be found in the sticker tray. Once you've recorded your video you can tap on the captions sticker and it will auto-transcribe the speech in the video. Instagram lets you choose among the different fonts available, and also change the colour for captions. There's also an option to edit words in captions because it's most likely that the transcription won't be accurate.

Sound off 🗣
…with sound off 🔇

Now you can add a captions sticker in Stories (coming soon to Reels) that automatically turns what you say into text.

We're starting in a handful of countries and hope to expand soon. pic.twitter.com/OAJjmFcx4R

— Instagram (@instagram) May 4, 2021

The captions sticker will be available to English and English-speaking countries first, according to The Verge. Instagram is working on adding other languages as well. The Verge also mentioned that there's no option to highlight text in captions but you can still use the drawing tool or sticker behind the text. This feature is expected to get popular, and it's also helpful for people with hearing disabilities.

Instagram introduced something similar last year with its camera-first Threads app. Here, the app automatically adds captions to every video recorded. You can then remove the captions, or edit each word. You can also move the captions around the video and place them where you want. On Threads, transcriptions work for 15 seconds. Captions are available in IGTV as well.