This app makes it easy to narrate and caption your videos

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Captions makes it easy to share compelling narrated videos. The app adds attractive, eye-catching captions to videos you record or import. It has a helpful teleprompter, an AI script-writing assistant, and a suite of AI editing features. Its most impressive feature: AI dubbing that can automatically transform your voice into any of 27 languages. Read on for a summary of its most valuable features, plus a few caveats and alternatives.

Generate captions automatically

Adding captions to videos manually is tedious and time-consuming. Captions.ai does it in seconds. I was impressed with its accuracy. The only errors I encountered: names.

Record yourself on video and watch as captions are automatically generated and synced with your speech.
Import videos already on your phone to easily add captions.
Paste in a YouTube link, and the app will import the video and suggest excerpts you can make into new captioned videos. You can adjust the suggested start and end points to customize the clips.
Export your video to platforms including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, with captions already burned in.

Record with a Teleprompter

No more looking back and forth between your script and your phone. Or juggling multiple windows or apps. You can record with Caption.ai’s built-in teleprompter.

Prompt the AI script-writing assistant with some key points you want to make in your video. It will then provide you with a draft script based on your ideas.
Alternatively, paste in a script you’ve already written, or type it out without AI help.
Once you have your script—whether you write it itself or with AI assistance—you can choose between a scenes-based teleprompter or a scrolling display.
- The scenes approach allows you to pause between sections. That works especially well if your recording has distinct sections with different settings, or if you want to adjust how you appear between segments.
- The scrolling display is best if you want to record the video in a single take without having to tap the screen to advance the teleprompter. You can adjust the speed ahead of time. If it ends up being too fast or slow, you can restart after adjusting the speed of the text scroll. (Note to the Captions.ai product team: consider adding a way to preview scroll speed).
My impression: The teleprompter worked well and made it easy to keep track of key points. (Tip: Even if you don’t want to write out a precise script, you can use the teleprompter to remind you of key points, stats, quotes or details to mention.)

Edit Visuals with AI

Once you’ve recorded or imported your video, you can trim and polish it.

Add AI-generated close-ups for visual variety.
Add transitions between sections to smooth over awkward spots.
Change the aspect ratio. Pick vertical, horizontal, or fit whatever platform or purpose you have in mind.
Add relevant images. The app’s AI can search free image services like Pexels, Pixabay and Unsplash for keywords mentioned in your video. It can suggest images to show in your video when related concepts are mentioned. You can then select whichever images you want to include.
Customize how captions look. Pick from a variety of templates. Choose whether some words appear highlighted or larger than others. Pinch or drag the captions to change their onscreen size or position. Optional: Have the AI add relevant emojis next to some words.
Enhance eye contact. If you read your script, viewers may find your lack of eye contact off-putting. The app’s AI eye-contact enhancement makes it appear as if you’re looking your viewer in the eye. My take: a bit creepy.

Edit Audio with AI

Change the sound of your video with AI assistance. The AI-generated voiceover text works well and sounds good. Other AI audio features didn’t work as well as I expected.

Clean up audio by removing background noise. I would recommend using other noise-reduction tools instead, such as Descript or Adobe’s free audio cleaner.
Add AI-generated music by selecting a genre (like acoustic, pop, country, orchestra, or rock); a mood (like happy, sentimental, dark, dreamy, or peaceful); and a theme (like cinematic, tutorial, nature, ads and trailers, documentary, vlogs).
- You can adjust the overall volume level of the background music or recompose it if you don’t like the first result. While I like the idea, I found the AI-generated music quality less than stellar. I’d prefer to use other sources for free music composed by humans, including Uppbeat.io, CCMixter, or other Creative Commons music sources.
Add an AI-generated voiceover. Choose from nine voices to narrate your video. Type or paste in your text to generate a natural-sounding voiceover.
Trim gaps or filler words with the AI trimming tool. I find that auto-trimming sometimes clips too much, so expect to make manual adjustments.

Dub and Translate Your Videos Instantly

Dub your videos into any of 27 languages. Remarkably, it looks as if you’re speaking that language, as in this example. The dubbed voice sounds like yours!

Alternatively, you can keep your own voice in your own language but display captions in any of 50+ languages.

To capitalize on dubbing without paying for a subscription to the Captions.ai app, you can use the company’s free Lipdub app. To use it, you just record something you normally would, then choose a language to have your narration dubbed in. The AI feature makes it look and sound as if you’re actually speaking that other language.

Free version for desktop

Without paying for a subscription or downloading the mobile app, you can use three Captions.ai tools on your computer.

Compress videos to reduce their giant file size.
AI Eye Contact lets you edit a video to make it appear you’re maintaining eye contact with your viewer. If you find this creepy, give it a skip.
Add Subtitles. Put nice-looking captions on any video file on your laptop.

Caveats

Captions.ai is available for iOS. An Android app will be ready early next year. A Windows app is on the way, and a Mac app is in beta.
The app costs $10 monthly. The free trial lasts a few days so you can judge whether it’s worth the spend.
You can’t yet replace the background of a video you record as you can with other apps, such as Apple’s Clips. The background replacement feature will come by the end of the year, the company says.
The noise reduction feature didn’t work reliably for me.
Making fine finger edits with this app on a small phone screen can be challenging. It often took me multiple tries to make a detailed trim edit.

Alternatives

Kapwing is a useful Web-based video editor that lets you add captions for free for videos up to four minutes long, with a small watermark. Paid plans start at $16/month for longer, captioned videos, or to remove the watermark.
Descript is a text-based audio and video editor you can use to add captions to a file you upload. Read why it’s one of the best ways to edit multimedia.
Apple’s Clips, despite being one of Apple’s least-publicized apps, is fast, easy to use, and a free video app. The app also lets you replace the background on your video, useful if you’re not in a studio.
CapCut, from ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company),can caption your videos in a variety of styles. It’s free for Mac, Windows, Android, or iOS. I prefer the Captions.ai interface, though CapCut has a huge range of features.