Instagram is adding auto-generated captions to videos, company head Adam Mosseri announced on Tuesday saying the feature has been “a long time coming.” Captions will now appear automatically on videos but users will still be able to decide to turn them off or on.
Twitter and TikTok have rolled out automatic captions already and Instagram is once again implementing a useful feature its competitions have running. Mosseri calls auto-captions for Instagram videos “a new tool that empowers those in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.”
Instagram says the auto-captions on videos will be available in “select languages” at launch, but the quality of captions is expected to be better as people use the feature. Instagram’s AI will learn and improve on the feature and it’s expected to be available in more languages in the coming months.
Captions give people a new way to consume video content on the platform. Users who want to watch a video without audio can still understand what’s being said in the video.
