Instagram has been rolling out feature after new feature, be it to help make the platform more interactive, or to prevent hate speech. Another new feature, fresh out of the oven, provides users with the option to add captions to their videos. The option is being rolled out for the Stories and Reels sections, and will first be made available for the former. After a short while, Reels will also be equipped with the feature.
The perk with this new offering will be that it will add a new “Captions Sticker” to the Stories and Reels, and will allow users to go through the Stories on their Feed without having to turn the sound on. They will be able to see the words that make up the video’s sound, in the form of a caption. This seems to be a cool new addition for users who are unable to turn on the sound due to any reason, or have a hearing problem.
While it does seem exciting, non-English speaking users, and users in non-English speaking countries will have to wait to try out the new feature. For now, it will only be available in the English language in select countries, but other languages will be introduced in the future, and access will be extended to other countries as well.
This is not the first time that the Captions Sticker has been in the news. It had first been revealed last year, in a package of sorts, along with other stickers, including the Link Sticker, Collab Sticker and Reshare Sticker, before going into beta with a select few Instagram users. Even parent Facebook seems to be gearing up to launch its own Captions Sticker.
As for how the feature will work, it is quite simple. Users will first have to record a video to be posted onto Stories or Reels (or, alternately, will have to choose a video from their camera roll or gallery). Then, clicking on the brand new “Captions” sticker in the Stickers bar will allow Instagram to convert the sound or audio from the video, into readable text.
This new product seems to be a competitor of sorts for the new Captions feature that was rolled out by TikTok recently, better known as Auto-Captions, though the two features have some fundamental differences. The feature with TikTok directly translates the audio or sound from the video into text in either Japanese or American English (as set by users). This feature can be controlled by users, who have the option of switching the captions on or off. The text however, is not customizable.
Instagram had also been rumoured to launch a feature to allow users to view its Stories in a vertical format, sort of akin to TikTok, rather than the conventional horizontal one that’s available as of now. The move hasn’t come to fruition till now. Recently, the platform made it possible for users to hide the ‘likes’ count on their posts. However, Instagram has evolved a lot over the years. It has introduced many features to the users including the stories, reels and many more features yet to discover. The platform has become so competitive and users find it very challenging to get a high amount of audience. This might be a reason that users are looking forward to getting the best Instagram growth service to boost their account faster.
What It Means To Marketers
Instagram has become one of the most sought social media channels for social media marketing. Hence, it’s not new to discover new marketing tools, such as an Instagram Story viewer. This tool allows marketers to subtly look at anyone’s IG story using a third-party app or software.
With the announcement of the new automatic capture or Captions feature, marketers can use it to highlight and deliver their brand message more effectively. This feature helps increase the audience’s brand awareness, memory retention, and recognition.
The Captions Sticker enables brands to reach a more diverse pool of prospective customers, especially people with hearing disabilities. Marketers can use the Link Sticker to creatively add their website link to their stories for higher click rates, boosting site traffic and leads.
What It Means For Users
With Instagram’s latest announcement, users can have a more meaningful social media experience using Captions for their Instagram stories. They have more options and tools to choose from to improve their social media presence and engage with their followers better.
Instagram is continuously finding ways to make its users and marketers happy. Adding new features enables this social media channel to stay in the loop with new changes, driving citizen creators to create more valuable content and paving the way toward digital business transformation.
