(Pocket-lint) – Twitter has announced a new feature: The ability to turn captions on or off on its video player. This is an important accessibility feature that allows the hearing impaired community to easily watch videos on Twitter.
How to turn on closed captions on Twitter
In June 2022, Twitter announced that, after two months of testing, it has rolled out a closed caption button that would allow its users to toggle captions when watching videos on its platform.
The CC button shows up in the top corner of a video if it has captions available.
Video captions or no captions, it’s now easier to choose for some of you on iOS, and soon on Android.
On videos that have captions available, we’re testing the option to turn captions off/on with a new “CC” button. pic.twitter.com/Q2Q2Wmr78U
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) April 22, 2022
That last bit is key. Videos will need a captions file attached in order to surface captions. It’d be amazing if Twitter could offer this widely alongside an automated caption system – something YouTube has long offered. Still, it’s a step in the right direction, and something that hearing-impaired and honestly even hearing users will surely welcome.
Who hasn’t turned on captions while watching a movie or show to better hear the actors mumbling in a noisy scene?
Who can turn on closed captions?
Twitter said the closed caption button is now available for everyone on iOS and is coming to Android users. You’ll also see it on the web.
Writing by Maggie Tillman.
