How to Add Captions to Instagram Stories, Reels and More!

Upload an Instagram Story which features talking audio.

In the editor mode, swipe up to the section where you would usually find polls, stickers, location tags and hashtags.

Select ‘captions’.

Instagram will automatically transcribe the audio, which you can click to edit or change the color and font of the text.

Select done, resize the text how you’d like it, and you’re finished!

Upload or record a Reel, which features a voiceover or talking audio.

When you’re happy with the video, click through to Preview Mode.

Select the stickers option, and click on ‘captions.’

From here, you can edit or change the automatically transcribed audio to fit your video.

Select done, resize the text how you’d like it, and you’re finished!

Make sure any text you use is legible and readable. It’s all well and good including text and closed captions on your content, but you want to make sure your users can actually read it! Text should be large enough to view, and in a color that stands out from the background, or against a solid background that contrasts with the text color. For example, many people find it difficult to read red writing on a blue background, so to be safe you should try and pick contrasting colors like black and white that aren’t too bright.

Add visual cues to your content. Aside from text, you can make your video content more fun to follow by adding visual cues like stickers, polls or images as well as sound effects.

Add ‘alternative text’ to your posts. Alt text is displayed or transmitted when your image or video hasn’t loaded properly, or if someone is visually impaired. By adding accurate alt text that describes your image, you are not only helping users understand your content, but you are also helping Instagram understand the type of content you create. This has been said to help propel content towards more specific, targeted audiences, increasing discoverability and organic growth.

Make any references, links or documents accessible. If you reference any content that isn’t your own, or useful links your followers may want to check out, you should consider making this information easy to locate, via a link in bio, or Linktree for example.

Consider your use of emojis. Believe it or not, different emojis actually mean different things. For example, there are multiple emojis that showcase ‘cars’ but their text translation is very different and can have different connotations. For example: