How to Add CC to TikTok

Adding closed captions to your TikToks is one of the quickest ways to increase your views, engagement, and accessibility. Whether viewers are watching with the sound off or need captions to understand your content, they’re no longer a nice-to-have feature - they’re a must. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add captions to your videos using TikTok's built-in tools and other creative methods, along with best practices to make your content pop.

Why Adding Captions to Your TikToks is a Game-Changer

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." If you think captions are just an afterthought, think again. They have a direct impact on your video's performance and your brand's perception.

• Boosts Accessibility: This is the most important reason. Captions make your content inclusive for the 430 million people worldwide who are Deaf or hard of hearing, allowing everyone to enjoy your videos.
• Catches "Sound-Off" Viewers: Over 85% of social media videos are watched without sound. If people are in a quiet meeting, on public transportation, or scrolling at night, captions are the only way they’ll get your message. Without them, they’ll just scroll on by.
• Improves Comprehension and Watch Time: Reading along with who is speaking helps reinforce your message and can increase how long someone watches your video. Clear communication leads to longer watch times, which the TikTok algorithm loves.
• Enhances SEO and Discoverability: The text in your captions can be crawled by TikTok’s algorithm. By including keywords relevant to your video, you make it easier for your content to show up in search results on the platform, attracting new viewers who are looking for exactly what you’re talking about.

Method 1: Using TikTok's Built-in Auto-Captions (The Easiest Way)

TikTok has made adding captions incredibly simple with its auto-generation feature. This is the fastest and most common method for creators. It automatically transcribes your audio into text overlays that are synced with your video.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Record or Upload Your Video: Start by either filming a new video directly in the TikTok app or uploading a pre-recorded clip from your camera roll.
2. Proceed to the Editing Screen: After recording or choosing your video, stop on the primary editing screen (do not tap “Next” yet). This is where you see options like 'Text', 'Stickers', 'Effects', and 'Captions' on the right-hand side.
3. Find and Open the Captions Menu: Look for the 'Captions' icon (it often looks like a rectangle with text lines) on the right side of the editor screen and tap it. Tapping this will initiate the transcription process. A pop-up will appear, confirming the audio source and language. Confirm these are correct.
4. Generate and Wait: TikTok will now automatically listen to your audio and transcribe it into captions. This usually only takes a few seconds, but it might take a bit longer for videos over a minute long.
5. Review and Edit (Do Not Skip This Step!): Once generated, your captions will appear on the video preview. Do not assume they are 100% correct. This brings us to a massively important step that deserves its own section.

How to Edit Auto-Generated Captions for Accuracy and Style

Auto-captioning tools are amazing, but they are not perfect. They can mishear words, miss punctuation, or struggle with brand names and slang. Taking a minute to clean up your captions makes you look more professional and maintains the clarity of your message.

Editing the Text Content

After your captions have been generated, you'll see them overlaid on your video preview. You'll also see a pencil icon which allows you to edit each part of the caption timeline. Simply:

• Tap the Text to Edit: Select any text box to open the text editor. You can correct spelling errors, add punctuation like commas and periods, and capitalize words that the AI missed (like your name or company name).
• Break Up Long Sentences: If a caption phrase is too long and fills up the whole screen, you can split it into multiple, smaller text blocks. Find a natural pause in the sentence, put your cursor there, and hit the 'return' or 'enter' key. This creates a break and improves readability significantly.
• Check for Gaps or Merges: The tool might incorrectly merge different sentences into one caption bubble or fail to capture a section of audio altogether. Both problems can be fixed using the simple editor after you tap to make edits.

Styling Your Captions

Once the text is accurate, you can customize its appearance to match your brand's aesthetic. After tapping the pencil icon or the entire caption block, you’ll see styling options similar to the regular text tool:

• Fonts: Choose from a variety of fonts to match the vibe of your video. Classic, typewriter, serif - find what fits.
• Colors: Don’t stick with the default white. Pick a color that stands out against your video's background. If your video has a lot of bright spots, a dark text color works well, and vice versa.
• Highlight/Background: A solid background or outline behind your text can make it readable no matter what’s happening in the video. A semi-transparent black background is a classic choice for a reason - it almost always works.
• Alignment: You can typically align the text left, right, or center within the text box. Centered is usually the default and often the best choice for captions.

Once you've edited and styled everything, tap 'Save' and your polished captions will be perfectly synced and ready to go.

Method 2: Manually Adding Text Overlays (The Creative Control Method)

Sometimes you want more granular control over your text, or you want to highlight certain words for emphasis. In these cases, you can add captions manually using TikTok's standard 'Text' tool. This method is more time-consuming but offers maximum creative freedom.

It's perfect for short videos where you have just a few lines of dialogue or want to create a "lyric video" effect.

1. Add Text in Segments: From the editing screen, tap the 'Text' tool (usually marked 'Aa'). Type out the first phrase or sentence of your audio. Style it however you want with fonts, colors, and animations.
2. Set the Duration: After adding the text, tap on it. An option called 'Set duration' will appear. Select this. You'll see a timeline of your video at the bottom of the screen. Drag the handles of the text clip to match the exact portion of the audio where that phrase is spoken.
3. Rinse and Repeat: Go back to the main editing screen and repeat the process. Add a new text box for the next bit of dialogue, set its duration, and position it on the screen. Continue until your entire video is transcribed.

This method gives you total command of the timing and appearance, allowing you to animate individual words or change colors mid-sentence for dramatic effect.

Method 3: Burned-in Captions via a Third-Party App

For creators and brands who want absolute consistency across all social platforms, another option is to "burn" your captions directly into your video file before you even upload it to TikTok. This means the text is permanently part of the video image itself.

You can do this using video editing apps like CapCut, InShot, Adobe Premiere Rush, or even desktop software like Adobe Premiere Pro.

The general workflow is:

1. Import & Edit: Open your video in your chosen editing app.
2. Use the Captioning Tool: Most of these apps have a feature that can either auto-generate captions (just like TikTok) or allow you to add text overlays manually. CapCut, in particular, has an excellent and accurate auto-captioning feature.
3. Style for Your Brand: Take advantage of the app’s advanced styling options - you’ll often have access to a much wider range of fonts, animations, and color effects than TikTok offers natively.
4. Export: Save the final video (with captions) to your camera roll.
5. Upload to TikTok: Now, just upload this finished video to TikTok. Since the captions are already part of the video, you don't need to use TikTok's captioning feature.

The main advantage here is locking in your brand's unique font and text style. The downside is that viewers can’t turn these captions off, and it adds an extra app to your workflow.

Best Practices for Stand-Out Captions

Simply adding captions isn't enough, you'll want to be sure you are creating effective captions.

• Keep Text Lines Short: Don’t display huge paragraphs on screen. Break up sentences into bite-sized chunks of one or two lines at most. It’s much easier for viewers to read and digest quickly.
• Readability Is Paramount: Always use a font and color combination that is easy to read. High contrast is your friend. Avoid busy-looking script fonts for captions and don’t place text over a cluttered background without an outline or background swatch.
• Mind a Safe Viewing Area: Your captions shouldn’t cover up your face, the product you’re showcasing, or other critical action in your video. Also be sure to place them in a location where they are not obscured by the TikTok user interface. Test your video on a phone before publishing to ensure that the captions you apply are not blocked.
• Always Proofread: While a funny typo might occasionally go viral, you shouldn’t count on it. Aim to earn the loyalty and trust of engaged viewers, especially those who rely on captions for accessibility. Don’t distract from your message with simple mistakes. Double-check your captions for spelling, grammar, and accuracy before sharing. Your credibility will be grateful.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating captions into your TikTok strategy isn't just a technical step, it's a strategic move that makes your content more inclusive, engaging, and discoverable. Whether you use TikTok's lightning-fast auto-captions or a third-party app for stylistic control, the effort pays off in connection and reach.

Once you’ve crafted the perfectly captioned TikTok, the last thing you want is for content management to become a headache. To keep our workflow streamlined, we built Postbase to handle the heavy lifting of scheduling and planning. Instead of manually posting to different platforms, we use it to upload our short-form videos once - captions and all - and schedule them across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts from a single, beautiful visual calendar.