As Apple so famously reminded us in late 2009, whatever it is you want to do with anything running Apple iOS, “there’s an app for that!”
Obviously there are thousands of such apps for Android devices too, but Apple ‘patented’ their snappy catchphrase around 14 years ago..
Unsurprisingly, there are many apps on the market for closed captioning, whereby people wish to caption audio within video, either so those videos can be watched without the viewer wearing headphones (despite Apple having ditched headphone jack sockets after the iPhone 7 ) or in areas where distracting noise would make it difficult to hear.
But, of course, there are many other reasons why closed captioning services are useful. Let’s take a look at a few advantages:
Noise-sensitive Areas
Closed captions are helpful wherever audio cannot be played, such as in (supposedly) quiet environments like libraries, offices, or public transportation.
Ever been to a public library recently? You’re more likely to use the closed caption of a video to ignore the screeching of children running around and teenagers watching videos at full volume; libraries were quiet spaces once upon a time!
Language Issues
Closed captions can be translated ‘on the fly’ from different audio input to a person’s preferred textual output.
You might stream a movie onto your iPad or tablet with a soundtrack in Spanish, but the closed captions can be set to appear in English. The benefits of this are of course self-evident.
Accessibility
losed captions enable access to video content for people who are partially or fully deaf. Whenever a video plays with captions, the content becomes more socially inclusive.
Such adherence to accessibility standards always counts well when search engines are ranking content.
In short, a video with well-written closed captions included at source is perhaps more likely to be listed higher on Google than content that doesn’t offer such caption facilities.
SEO
(Search Engine Optimization) when it comes to accessibility issues, search engines can also read the captions included on videos, so even if the intention of captioning isn’t driven by accessibility motives, it’s still useful for search engines and data collection APIs to be able to index the caption content, thus contextualizing that content for relevant search terms.
Clarity And Comprehension
Even those who don’t have hearing difficulties can find that captions can enhance understanding and clarity of audio content.
Closed captions can help audiences understand dialogue, especially if the original audio quality is poor, or when regional accents, slang terms, foreign languages and background noises could interfere with the viewer’s comprehension of audio soundtracks.
Study And Knowledge Retention
Captions can be especially useful for training materials and educational videos. The fact that they are written captions enables two things for learners.
If the caption app allows it, viewers can copy paste captions to assist with study and revision. But the very fact of reading closed captions makes the speech behind them more memorable.
Third Party Captioning Services
Depending on their needs, people might choose the services of a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) captioning platform, or simply employ a third party to produce captions for them.
Like everything else in life, everyone has a budget, and you get what you pay for! For example, it’s very likely that the legal and copyright department of a Hollywood film studio would think nothing of paying a third-party production company a couple of million dollars to put their latest blockbuster movie in front of an international audience by offering captions in, say, 40 languages.
By the same token, a film student producing a five-minute short for their end of year assessment might use an iPhone or Android captioning app from a freemium download offering 7 days trial of the software.
Audience Expectations
It would be rare nowadays to go to any streaming platform and find no captions or subtitles for a movie that a subscriber might like to watch.
But even ‘How To’ videos like those that fill YouTube need captions nowadays, for all the reasons outlined above and also for the AI software that YouTube uses to create ‘automatic chapters’.
Automatic chapters are then used for YouTube to place the ‘key moments’ in this video, so that viewers can choose to fast forward to the part they need.
For example, a video showing how to change the oil on a vintage car might contain instructions for identifying the sump plug, choosing the correct spanner etc – but a viewer might have already done that and just needs to know the quantity of fresh oil to pour in the filler aperture.
The closed captions created could easily prompt the viewer to fast forward to ¾ of the way through where the caption states:
“Measure 4.5 litres of 20/50 SAE oil into a jug and pour the contents into the filler area marked ‘A’.”
This saves the tedium of watching three minutes of activity that the viewer has already performed.
In summary, almost any video, for any purpose, is nowadays required to offer close-captioned textual content, or it will soon be ignored by search engines and human viewers alike.
