Video caption questions

How do I add subtitles to a Chinese video on iPhone?

Choose Chinese as the spoken language in a captions app that works on your iPhone. Captionry writes the captions from Mandarin speech in Traditional or Simplified characters, depending on which Chinese you choose, and also offers Cantonese. It can add a second line in English or another language, translated on your iPhone (iOS 18 or later) or, if you allow it, by AI (also on iOS 16 and 17). The captions are burned into the exported video.

What to know

  • Spoken language: “Chinese, Traditional” or “Chinese, Simplified” for Mandarin, or Cantonese. The captions use the characters of the Chinese you choose.
  • How well Cantonese works depends on your iPhone’s own speech recognition.
  • Translating on your iPhone needs iOS 18 or later. With AI allowed, a second line also works on iOS 16 and 17.
  • Without AI, your iPhone translates on its own and may ask to download a language the first time. With AI on, what Captionry sends to translate it includes the caption text with its timing, the languages and any caption rules you saved, plus the video’s length and a random installation code, to count your free minutes. It never sends the video or audio.
  • Each caption language is made one line long and shrinks to fit the width, so it normally stays on one line. Captionry avoids splitting a Chinese word between two captions where it can.

Checked: October 2026

How to do it with Captionry

  1. Open Captionry and pick your video.
  2. On the start screen, set the language spoken to Chinese, Traditional or Simplified, or to Cantonese.
  3. Set Caption line 2 to English, or leave it off for Chinese only.
  4. Check the captions, tap any word to fix it, and export.

Related questions

Can I show English subtitles only, without the Chinese?

Yes. Set Caption line 1 to English: the speech is still recognised as Chinese, and the caption shows the translation.

Can I get Traditional characters from a Mandarin video?

Yes. Choose “Chinese, Traditional” as the spoken language and the captions are written in Traditional characters.

Is my video uploaded?

Not to make captions. Captions are made from the video on your iPhone. If you allow AI polish, what Captionry sends to fix and translate it includes the caption text with its timing, the languages and any caption rules you saved, plus the video’s length and a random installation code, to count your free minutes. It never sends the video or audio. A video is uploaded only if you create a share link for it in My Videos: a copy of up to 60 seconds, kept for 30 days, which you can delete any time.

Caption your video in Captionry

Captions are made on your iPhone. Making captions, editing and exporting without a watermark are free; optional AI polish includes 15 free video minutes a month. iPhone only.

Download on the App Store