How To Force Captions & Subtitles On YouTube (2018)

Introduction

In today’s digital age, accessibility is crucial for video content. Whether viewers are in a loud environment, hard of hearing, or simply prefer reading subtitles while watching, captions can significantly enhance the viewing experience. Fortunately, forcing captions and subtitles to automatically show on YouTube videos is quite simple. This article explains how to do it, particularly if you’ve uploaded captions using Rev.

Why Captions Matter

Captions and subtitles provide multiple benefits for online video content. Here are several scenarios where they can be particularly useful:

Noisy Environments: Viewers might be in locations where sound cannot be played, like public transport or busy workplaces.
Accessibility: Individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf greatly benefit from watching videos with captions.
Audio Quality Issues: Videos recorded in hectic environments may have poor audio quality, making it difficult to understand the speaker.
Language Barriers: If the video's language is not familiar to the audience, captions can assist in comprehension.
Private Viewing: Sometimes, viewers might want to watch videos discreetly without disturbing others, necessitating the use of subtitles.

How To Force Captions On Your Videos

Once you have your captions or translations uploaded to YouTube using Rev, you can force captions to be shown for your videos through a simple method. Here’s how you can easily do it:

Using YouTube Tags: Embed a specific code in your YouTube tags. This ensures that captions are automatically displayed when someone plays your video.
Embedding on Websites: If you’re using the YouTube embed code on a website, simply add ?cc_load_policy=1 at the end of the URL within the iframe code. This small addition ensures that captions will show automatically once the video starts.

Here’s how it should look:

Original Embed Code: https://www.youtube.com/embed/yourvideoid
Updated Embed Code: https://www.youtube.com/embed/yourvideoid?cc_load_policy=1

By following these steps, you can enhance your video’s accessibility effortlessly.

Conclusion

Using captions can significantly improve viewer engagement while ensuring your content reaches a wider audience. Make sure to upload your captions with a service like Rev, and remember to add the appropriate code to your video and embed options. If you found these tips helpful, consider subscribing for more videos on maximizing your YouTube content.

Keywords

YouTube
Captions
Subtitles
Accessibility
Rev
Embed code
Automatic captions
Video engagement

FAQ

1. Why should I use captions in my videos? Captions enhance accessibility for hard-of-hearing viewers, improve comprehension in noisy environments, and allow viewers to follow along quietly.

2. How do I force captions on my YouTube videos? You can force captions to display by adding specific codes in the video tags or modifying the embed code on your website.

3. What is the code to automatically show captions in YouTube? For video tags, add the required code. For embed code, append ?cc_load_policy=1 to the video URL.

4. Can I use a third-party service for captions? Yes, services like Rev can help you create and upload high-quality captions to your YouTube videos.

5. Are there benefits to using subtitles in other languages? Absolutely! Subtitles in additional languages can help you reach a broader audience and enhance comprehension for non-native speakers.