Closed captions are the sidecar idea: a .srt or .vtt the player composites. Platform-native captions are that idea after ingest — the app's own ASR, the app's type, the app's on/off switch, the app's position. YouTube long-form is the honest home for them. Short-form may show an auto-caption layer, or may not, and it will not look like your Caption Studio preset. A download, a stitch, a duet, a re-upload to a second app: the layer stays behind.
Burned-in captions are the opposing object. The look is in the file. Mute autoplay sees it. Karaoke word-highlight is a burn, not a YouTube CC feature. If you need both — a styled vertical for the feed and a restylable track for a course player — render the burn and export the transcript as SRT. Do not assume uploading the SRT to TikTok is the same job as the burn.
Accuracy is the platform's recogniser, not yours. Product names, numbers, and two-speaker overlap are the usual misses, and you cannot proofread a layer you do not own. Treat native captions as accessibility on long-form and as a bonus on short-form. The edit still needs a burn if the hook has to be read on mute.
In practice
- Ship burn-in for Reels, TikTok, Shorts and ads; ship a sidecar or Studio captions for long-form.
- Do not design to the app's caption font. You do not keep it.
- If a client wants 'TikTok captions,' ask whether they mean the auto layer or a burn that survives a download.
The mistake to avoid
Relying on auto in-app captions as the mute strategy. The player can hide them, restyle them, or never draw them on a re-upload.
Where you will run into it
- Add Captions to a Video — Speech in, styled subtitles out — no manual timing.
- AI Caption Generator — Drop a video, get timed captions. Free, on your device, no upload.
Related terms
Closed captions
Closed captions are a separate subtitle track the player draws, which the viewer can switch off and which each platform styles itself.
Burned-in captions
Burned-in captions meaning: subtitles rendered into pixels, so viewers cannot turn them off or lose them on re-upload. Closed captions are a separate track.
SRT
SRT is the simplest caption sidecar: numbered cues, start and end times with a comma decimal, and plain text. No styling, no positioning.
Hook rate
Hook rate meaning: the share of people shown a video who are still watching a few seconds in. It grades the opening, not the body.
Retention curve
Retention curve meaning: how many starters are still watching at each second. Watch time is the area under that curve.
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