Captioning for Instagram Stories is HERE!! This may be one of the Instagram updates I’ve been most excited about in a long time! And, on top of that, it’s actually a really good release that isn’t clunky or awkward to use. It’s really good!

For a long while there, people were using Threads (another Instagram app) to create captions of the audio in a video to then upload to Stories or Reels. But now, finally, Instagram has rolled this feature out to Stories which will give it much accessibility and widespread use.

Speaking of accessibility, this is one of the most valuable aspects of the captioning tool. You can add captions to your Instagram Stories, making them easily accessible to those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who just can’t access audio when they’re watching Story posts. So this is a really good way to provide more value to your audience.

It’s also an inevitable benefit in the Instagram versus TikTok battle as it provides this super easy functionality within Instagram – although it’s not technically available for Reels. But my hack for a while now has been to create content in Stories (where you’re likely more comfortable creating content anyways) and then saving those videos to your mobile device then uploading to Reels. It’s relatively easy and with this captions sticker in Stories, you know more people are going to be doing this.

So, how do you use Captions in Instagram Stories?

OMG, it’s SO easy – once you have the sticker.

First, you have to film or upload a video into Instagram Stories. The sticker will NOT appear for photo or text based Stories.

Once you have your video, go to the sticker option (the square smiley face icon) and select the “Captions” sticker. If you don’t see the sticker, you don’t have this feature yet. It is currently rolling out to more users (I only have it one account as of publishing this post) so hang tight and hopefully you get it soon.

Tap on the sticker and give it about 2 seconds.

BOOM!

You’ll see the captioning start to appear on the screen in conjunction with your audio. And I have to admit, it’s GOOD. I purposely mumbled and talked quietly in a test, and it got every word right. I also did another test with music clearly in the background but it only pulled my voice for the captions. Wow!

It’s quick, easy, and accurate! It’s awesome!

But, if you do need to edit any of the text in the captioning, simply tap on the caption, scroll up or down to the word you want to edit and delete and type over with what you want. Fun fact: You can also add a “+bl*ep” option to bleep out cuss words in the audio or certain words you don’t want. But even better than that….? OMG if you actually cuss in the audio, it will automatically bleep out your words in the audio and add the bleep text. Shut the front door!! bleepity bleppity bleep! lol

There are a couple other things you can do to customize your captions as well. There are various font options and you can change the color of the text to be more on brand with your styling for Stories. And finally, you can pinch to change the size and drag around the screen to put the text wherever you want it.

Like I said, super easy and super accurate. Instagram, I tip my hat. I’m impressed.