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Apple Says iOS 27 Can Automatically Add Captions to Your Personal iPhone Videos

Apple this week previewed new accessibility features that are coming later this year, and one is particularly notable: automatic captions for personal videos.

Apple Says iOS 27 Can Automatically Add Captions to Your Personal iPhone Videos Feature
For videos that do not already have captions, Apple said a new on-device speech recognition model can automatically generate them for spoken audio. According to Apple, this feature will be available for videos that you record on your iPhone, videos that you receive from friends and family, and videos that are streamed online.

The automatic captions will initially be limited to English in the U.S. and Canada.

Apple ensured that the captions are generated privately, and you will be able to customize their appearance in the video playback menu or in the Settings app. The feature will be supported across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Vision Pro, with the "later this year" timing pointing to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27.

Apple will unveil those software versions during its WWDC 2026 keynote, which begins on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, so we expect to learn more about this feature and its exact implementation in a few weeks from now.

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Top Rated Comments

17 weeks ago
I've found that these annoying new short clips (Youtube Shorts, Instagram clips, etc.) that always plaster the words of what the speaker is saying overlayed onto the screen, keep me from watching the video and I'm just reading the words as they're being spoken. Which kinda defeats the purpose of video. But I'm sure people will use this feature to death.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arn Avatar
17 weeks ago

I've found that these annoying new short clips (Youtube Shorts, Instagram clips, etc.) that always plaster the words of what the speaker is saying overlayed onto the screen, keep me from watching the video and I'm just reading the words as they're being spoken. Which kinda defeats the purpose of video. But I'm sure people will use this feature to death.
It's because a ton of people browse social media with audio muted.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
17 weeks ago
It needs auto translation as well. I don’t understand why they don’t have auto translation on captions (for AppleTV) yet in 2026
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cjsuk Avatar
17 weeks ago
I'm seeing a lot of good accessibility changes here. I have disabled family members and the iPhone is somewhat a lifeline for them. Any improvements are good.

I am really so glad to see this technology used for something positive.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
17 weeks ago

No British English?

Would be nice if Apple would stop acting like a startup and acknowledge that the world is bigger than theirs.
You mean a Vickie Pollard mode?

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cameront9 Avatar
17 weeks ago
On the one hand, as deaf person this is great.

On the other hand...The iPhone has been able to do this for years? I use iPhone live captions all the the time. It works with literally any audio playing on the phone.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)