Instagram is rolling out its anticipated Captions features for Stories. The social media platform announced the rollout in a handful of countries and also confirmed that it will trickle down to Reels in the future. Captions will enable users to watch and understand video on Stories even without keeping the sound on. This looks to also help in improving accessibility to hearing impaired and deaf users, who can enjoy a more immersive and engaging experience with the help of this new feature.
The Facebook-owned company took to Twitter to announce the rollout of Captions feature. This feature has been enabled for Instagram Stories users. It was first rolled out for IGTV users last year and Instagram is making it accessible on all of its periphery features in-app. The company has confirmed that Reels will get it soon too. The new Captions feature for Instagram Stories has started to roll out in a handful of countries and the company ‘hopes to expand soon’ in all markets.
Gadgets 360 was not able to see the option at the time of writing, even after updating to the latest version. It could be rolling out in a phased manner so it is best to wait it out. In an official statement, Instagram told CNET, “You may not always be somewhere where you want your sound on, yet you still want to see what your friends and creators are posting. With captions, people can now express themselves in a more effortless yet still meaningful way, and their audience can watch and still engage.”
To use captions, record a video using Stories or upload it via your phone gallery. Swipe up to reveal the sticker tray and select the new Captions option. The captions will show up in your video, wherein Instagram will automatically convert speech into text. Users can further customise by changing caption style, font colour, and text. Users can also move the captions around in the video to place it into their preferred position.
