How to add captions to a family video message on iPhone

Why caption family video messages

Family video messages, such as a birthday greeting, a holiday hello, a family update or a message from the grandchildren, are often watched by relatives who are deaf or hard of hearing, or on a phone with the volume low. Captions let them read every word as it is said, so the message reaches them without turning the sound up.

This guide is for short messages you record and send to family. For a narrated set of photos, see the photo slideshow guide; for toasts and speeches at an event, the wedding toast guide. CaptionAddr burns the captions into the picture, so they show in any messaging app or player.

Caption a family video message on iPhone

1. Record close and quiet. Hold the iPhone near whoever is speaking, turn off the television and music, and let one person talk at a time. Captions come from the speech, so a clear voice gives the most accurate words.
2. Choose the video. Tap Select Video in CaptionAddr and pick the clip with Apple’s Photos picker. Vertical, square and landscape videos all work, and the video keeps its shape.
3. Let the captions generate. Captions start as soon as the video opens; keep the app open; the English speech is transcribed on your iPhone, not on a server.
4. Fix names and family words. Names of relatives, pets and places, and nicknames like the ones the grandchildren use, are the words most likely to come out wrong. Correct them in Edit Captions. You can edit, delete and reorder words, with undo and redo.
5. Make the words easy to read. Choose a plain font from the 20 available at a large size, turn on the tinted background, and drag the captions where they don’t cover anyone’s face.
6. Export and send. Tap Export Video to save the captioned copy to Photos, then send the captioned copy in a message or share it to a family group. The watermark is off unless you turn it on.

Tips for family message captions

• Speak at a steady pace. Word-by-word captions follow the pace of speech, so a calm pace gives relatives more time to read each word.
• Take turns talking. CaptionAddr doesn’t label speakers, so when several people speak, have each one say their name or keep the person talking in view.
• Help little ones along. Very young voices can be harder to transcribe; play those lines back and fix any misheard words.
• Watch it with the sound off. Before you send, play the captioned copy muted to check that the whole message comes through.
• Keep your original. CaptionAddr exports a new copy and leaves the original clip in your library.

Limits

• Speech only. CaptionAddr captions spoken English. It doesn’t caption music, singing or sound effects, so describe important sounds out loud.
• English only. CaptionAddr transcribes English speech and doesn’t translate, so it can’t add subtitles in a second language for relatives who speak another language.
• Single-word captions. Words appear one at a time, timed automatically, always in uppercase; there are no speaker labels, full-sentence layouts or manual per-word timing, and you can only fix, delete or reorder the transcribed words.
• No audio changes. The app doesn’t remove background noise or change the audio; deleting a word removes it from the captions only.
• Length. Free covers videos up to 2 minutes; CaptionAddr Pro covers up to 30 minutes. The App Store shows the current Pro price in your currency.
• Burned-in captions only. There is no SRT, VTT or text export, and the app doesn’t send messages or post to social platforms.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Accessible captions for videos on iPhone
• How to add captions to a photo slideshow with a voiceover on iPhone
• How to add captions to a wedding toast or event speech on iPhone
• How to add captions to a parenting tips video on iPhone

All caption guides →