Instagram Threads Adds Captions to Videos

What’s Happening

Instagram updated its stand-alone app called Threads. Never heard of this app? Don’t feel too out of the loop. As of October, only about 1% of Instagrammers were using it. Threads was created as a one-to-one messaging app to keep in touch with your close friends in DMs without the distractions of everything else on Instagram. There’s no feed, only messaging.

However, when Instagram added the ability to add stylized captions to your videos on the Threads app, the feature exploded with people creating videos – wait for it – for TikTok. It turns out the stylized captions and another feature they added, the ability to bleep out cuss words, went viral on a different platform.

Over the past year, several social platforms made a concerted effort to add captions or subtitles to videos both to allow accessibility for those who are hearing impaired and so users could consume the content without sound. Instagram added automatic closed captioning to IGTV videos in September. Facebook has the same ability for video uploads as well as Facebook Live videos.

Use it for Your Business

Captioning your videos is a no-brainer in my opinion.

According to this article, “A survey of U.S. consumers found that 92% view videos with the sound off on mobile… The report recommends that advertisers caption their advertisements because 80% of consumers are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available.”

Whether the video is an ad or not, people are more likely to watch and stay watching when the video is captioned. I’ve made it a personal practice to do so whenever possible.

The Threads app is useful because it’s a free way to add captions, but it’s not the most flexible. If you need longer videos captioned or want control over the font, color choice and caption placement, I recommend an app like MixCaptions.

Relevancy Rating

Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s worth your time: Is focusing on captioning your videos worth the time investment for your business?

YES!: I give it 5 out of 5 thumbs up.

Time investment on captioning is critical to growing your social media following. You won’t regret it!

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