Video caption questions

How do I translate a video into English subtitles on iPhone?

Tell the app which language is spoken, then set the caption line to English. In Captionry, set Speech to the video’s language, for example Russian or Spanish, and Caption line 1 to English: the speech is recognised in its own language, and each caption shows the English translation. Your iPhone translates on its own (iOS 18 or later) or, if you allow it, AI does (also on iOS 16 and 17). The English subtitles are burned into the exported video, and you can also save them as an SRT file.

What to know

  • Captionry does not guess the language. Set Speech to the language spoken: with the wrong one, the captions come out wrong, and Captionry may warn that very few captions were found.
  • Speech lists the languages your iPhone can recognise. Captions are made on the iPhone itself; if a language is not ready on your iPhone yet, Captionry tells you.
  • Without AI, your iPhone translates on iOS 18 or later and may ask to download a language the first time. On older iOS, or if your iPhone cannot translate that language, turn on AI.
  • With AI on, what Captionry sends 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. Translation uses the AI polish minutes: 15 free video minutes a month, or 120 with a subscription. AI takes videos up to 30 minutes and 400 captions; past that, or when the minutes run out, your iPhone translates instead, and that needs iOS 18 or later.

Checked: October 2026

How to do it with Captionry

  1. Open Captionry, tap Choose Video and pick your video from Photos.
  2. On the Auto Captions screen, set Speech to the language spoken, for example Russian.
  3. Set Caption line 1 to English and Caption line 2 to None, then tap Start (the first time, choose Keep on this iPhone or Use AI first).
  4. Check the English captions and tap Export. For a subtitle file, tap Languages, then Subtitle file under More options, and export SRT.

Related questions

Can I keep the original language as well?

Yes. Set Caption line 2 to the language spoken, and the video shows the English line and the original line together.

Can I get the original words back?

Yes. Captionry keeps what was said. In the editor, tap Languages, set Caption line 1 to Same as speech, and tap Apply.

Does it work for a Russian or Spanish video?

Yes. Both are in the Speech list. Spanish appears once, and Captionry picks the variety that matches your iPhone’s region when there is one.

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.

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