Twitter adds auto captions feature to make videos more accessible | TechCrunch

Starting today, Twitter is rolling out auto-generated captions on videos. This feature will make videos more accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Auto captions will be available on web, iOS and Android in over 30 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Hindi and many more. The captions could become useful in Twitter’s new vertical feed the company began testing last week. The feed, if rolled out publicly, would make the app’s Explore tab resemble TikTok, serving one piece of algorithmically recommended content at a time, including videos. On feeds like this, captioned videos have become expected because they make it easier to scroll through feeds when you’re in a public place and headphones aren’t in reach. But unlike the video caption features on TikTok and Instagram Reels — which allow users to edit the captions’ text before posting — Twitter won’t let users tweak its captions. That means users won’t be able to correct any errors to make the automated captions more accurate. Accessibility features like auto captions and image alt text have been getting more attention from Twitter after it finally created dedicated accessibility teams in September 2020. This staffing change was spurred after users criticized Twitter…
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