How to Add Captions to YouTube Shorts Automatically: 2 Best Ways (Online, Phone)

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Last Updated: 2023. 03. 15

Nowadays, with up to 83% of the videos watched with the sound off, it is of paramount importance for you to add captions for YouTube Shorts that are painstakingly edited. So, all viewers can easily read your YouTube Shorts with their eyes at their convenience.

However, manually adding captions to YouTube Shorts can be a mundane and time-consuming task. Well, no worries!

In this tutorial, we will walk you through the 2 best ways to automatically add captions for YouTube Shorts, both online and on your phone. So, you can engage all audiences and increase the YouTube watch time for better ranking.

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Here is what you will learn

Also, read how to automatically add subtitles to YouTube videos.

How to Add Captions to YouTube Shorts Automatically Online

If you wanna automatically add captions to YouTube Shorts on your computer and later directly share it them on YouTube, the user-friendly and feature-rich FlexClip online video maker is your go-to choice.

Automatically add captions to YouTube Shorts online by FlexClip Ai auto subtitle generator

Automatically add captions to YouTube Shorts online by FlexClip Ai auto subtitle generator.

With FlexClip’s powerful AI subtitle generator, you can automatically add captions to YouTube shorts with exact timestamps and up to 95% accuracy in one click. It can auto-transcribe up to 140+ languages with different accents. So, you can easily match the language and accent spoken in your YouTube Shorts videos.

After YouTube Shorts’ captions are auto-generated, you can customize the text’s font, size, color, background fill, alignment, opacity, etc., or split or merge captions as you wish.

Easily customize the style of auto-generated captions for YouTube Shorts

Easily customize the style of auto-generated captions for YouTube Shorts.

Besides, as a versatile online video maker, FlexClip also offers you extensive free and fully customizable video templates. So, you can easily drag and drop your video assets to customize a compelling YouTube Shorts video in minutes, which is a great timesaver.

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What’s more, If you don’t have the mic and time to record voiceovers in your YouTube Shorts video, you can use FlexClip’s text-to-speech generator to convert text to realistic AI voices in YouTube Shorts, which is extremely helpful.

Create realistic AI voices for YouTube videos with FlexClip text-to-speech generator

Create realistic AI voices for YouTube videos with FlexClip text-to-speech generator.

How to Automatically Add Captions to YouTube Shorts by FlexClip:

Step 1
Access FlexClip and set the video aspect to 9:16 for YouTube Shorts and upload your YouTube Shorts video from your PC, phone, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, etc.
Set the video aspect to 9:16 for YouTube Shorts and upload your video assets

Set the video aspect to 9:16 for YouTube Shorts and upload your video assets.

Step 2
Click the plus sign to add your YouTube Shorts video to the intuitive timeline. You can trim or split clips when needed.
Add YouTube Shorts video to the timeline and trim or split clips when needed

Add YouTube Shorts video to the timeline and trim or split clips when needed.

Step 3
Automatically add burned-in captions to YouTube Shorts.

Click the Subtitle tab > Auto AI Subtitle > identify the language and accent in your YouTube Shorts video > hit Next > select the style of captions > press the Generate Subtitle button. Then, FlexClip shall automatically generate the captions for you.

Automatically generate captions to YouTube Shorts by FlexClip AI auto subtitle generator

Automatically generate captions to YouTube Shorts by FlexClip AI auto subtitle generator.

Then, you proofread the auto-generated YouTube Shorts captions and click the Styles tab and tweak the text fonts, text size, text color, background fill, alignment, opacity, etc. or press Enter to split a caption into two or merge two short captions. Pretty helpful.

Customize the text fonts, text styles, and text layout of auto-generated captions for YouTube Shorts

Customize the text fonts, text styles, and text layout of auto-generated captions for YouTube Shorts.

Split or merge captions of YouTube Shorts

Split or merge captions of YouTube Shorts.

Step 4
Jazz up YouTube Shorts with royalty-free music, sound effects, and more. (optional).

Click the Audio tab > you can select from 74,000+ royalty music tracks and sound effects to create the vibes and rhythm for YouTube Shorts, or click the Text and Elements tab to add social profile text animations and funny emojis, illustrations and GIPHY GIFs, etc. to help the storytelling of your YouTube Shorts. You can even convert text to speech on YouTube shorts. Please feel free to explore.

Add royalty-free music, sound effects, animated texts, and elements to YouTube Shorts

Add royalty-free music, sound effects, animated texts, and elements to YouTube Shorts.

Step 5
Preview and share.

Done with the editing. You can save the 1080P video to your PC or directly share YouTube Shorts to YouTube, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, or even TikTok; a clickable link and an embed code are also available for your blogs, newsletters, or other repurposings.

Easily share your videos to YouTube or for other repurposings

Easily share your videos to YouTube or for other repurposings.

How to Add Auto Captions to YouTube Shorts on Your Phone

Well, if you prefer to add auto-captions to YouTube Shorts on your iPhone or Android, then AutoCap can be another great alternative. Not only can AutoCap auto-generate the captions for your YouTube Shorts, but also add highlighted color for certain words. You can later customize the text colors, background fill, text size, and captions’ animations. Pretty cool!

Add auto-captions to YouTube Shorts on your phone by AutoCap

Add auto-captions to YouTube Shorts on your phone by AutoCap.

The only downside with AutoCap is that the accuracy of auto-transcribed captions is not accurate and only English is available for auto-captioning and there will be a watermark for free users.

How to Add Captions to YouTube Shorts by AutoCap:

Step 1
Install and open AutoCap on your iPhone/Android.
Step 2
Tap “Select Video” to import your YouTube Shorts on your phone.
Step 3
Select the video aspect ratio (original, square, story, 4:5, 5:4) and tap Next > AutoCap shall automatically add captions to the YouTube Shorts video.
Step 4
Proofread auto-generated captions and manually correct incorrectly-transcribed captions.
Step 5
Tap the captions to customize the text font, text color, animation, size, highlighted words, border, background, and shadow.
Step 6
Preview and save the video to your phone.

FAQs about Adding Captions for YouTube Shorts

1. How do I turn on captions on Shorts?

If you happen to watch a YouTube Short video without captions on your phone, you can tap the three dots icon at the top right corner > select Captions > English (auto-generated) > turn on captions on Shorts. However, it’s only available in the YouTube app.

2. Why do I need to add captions to YouTube Shorts?

Well, for a YouTube content creator, adding burned-in captions to YouTube Shorts makes your video accessible to everyone, esp. to those who have to watch your video with the sound off or have a hearing impairment.

Besides, YouTube videos with captions often get longer view times, and a higher chance of getting likes, comments, and shares. It’s also helpful for your YouTube Shorts videos to rank higher in YouTube search results.

3. Does YouTube Studio have an auto-caption feature?

Unfortunately, no. However, after you posted YouTube Shorts to YouTube when you view YouTube Shorts using YouTube App on your phone, you may turn on auto-captions. The only drawback is that it is not that accurate and not available in all YouTube Shorts.

Now, It's Your Move

Adding captions to YouTube Shorts is the indispensable final touch for editing YouTube Shorts videos. Hopefully, with this tutorial, you can easily add captions to your YouTube Shorts to engage viewers. If you find this tutorial helpful, please share this post on your Facebook or Twitter and tag us and leave your take to us. Cheers!

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