Open vs closed captions: which should you use?
There are two ways to put captions on a video. One is part of the picture; the other is a separate track the player draws on top. For short-form social video the difference decides whether your captions are seen at all.
Open captions are burned into the video image and are always visible; closed captions are a separate text track that the viewer can switch on or off and that the player styles. For Reels, TikTok and Shorts, open (burned-in) captions are the reliable choice because they show everywhere, exactly as designed.
| Open captions (burned in) | Closed captions (separate track) | |
|---|---|---|
| Always visible | Yes | Only if the viewer turns them on |
| How they look | Exactly as you designed — font, colour, motion | Decided by the player or platform |
| Survive re-sharing | Yes — they are part of the video file | Usually lost when the video is downloaded or shared |
| Can the viewer turn them off | No | Yes |
| Edit after publishing | No — re-export the video | Yes — replace the track |
| Best for | Short social video, muted feeds, branded looks | Long-form video, multiple languages on one upload, broadcast |
Why short-form creators burn captions in
Feeds autoplay muted and viewers decide in seconds. A closed caption track the viewer has to switch on does nothing for someone scrolling past; an open caption is already on the screen. Burned-in captions also carry your look — a bold coach caption or a calm storytelling caption is part of the video's identity, which a platform's default caption style cannot reproduce.
When closed captions are better
For long videos on YouTube, courses and broadcast, a closed caption track lets viewers choose a language and turn captions off, and lets you fix a typo without re-uploading. Both count as captions under WCAG as long as they are accurate and synchronised — open captions are listed as a sufficient technique (WCAG Understanding 1.2.2; see our guide).
How Subtightl does it
Subtightl makes open captions: it transcribes your video, lets you correct it, and burns the captions into a new video file in one of six designed styles, with the captions following each spoken word.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, "Captions/Subtitles" — w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions
- W3C, "Understanding Success Criterion 1.2.2: Captions (Prerecorded)" — w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/captions-prerecorded