iOS 27’s new video feature could prove to be one of Apple’s best additions

WWDC is still a few weeks away, but earlier today Apple previewed a variety of new accessibility features coming in iOS 27, and one video feature stood out as particularly interesting to me: generated captions.

iOS 27 will let you add subtitles to any video you watch

Apple today revealed its new accessibility features coming in iOS 27, and while most of them aren’t aimed at me, there is one notable addition that I’m excited about.

Generated subtitles will allow your iPhone to automatically create subtitles for any video you watch. That means captions for any video on social media, in the Photos app, in Messages, or anywhere else in the system.

From Apple’s press release:

While closed captioning solutions are increasingly common for users who are deaf or hard of hearing, closed captions for spoken dialogue are rarely available for home videos, content shared by friends and family, and other media. With newly generated captions, videos can automatically display spoken audio transcriptions when captions or subtitles are not already provided, including in clips saved on iPhone, received from friends and family, or streamed online. With on-device voice recognition, captions are privately generated and automatically appear for uncaptioned videos on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. The appearance of subtitles can be customized in the video playback menu or Settings.

There is one key limitation: generated subtitles will only be available in English, as well as in the United States and Canada.

But as with other Apple Intelligence features, I expect the new functionality to expand to more languages ​​and territories over time.

Why I’m excited about iOS 27’s “Generated Captions” feature

When I come across a short video on social media, I almost always prefer to watch it with subtitles. This is because I am either:

1. In a public space, so I want to turn the volume down
2. Or I’m already listening to something else, like a podcast

As Apple says, closed captioning solutions are becoming more common across various video platforms. But they are certainly not universally available.

With this feature, I will be able to get subtitles no matter what I’m watching, and also fully customize their appearance.

I’ll be curious to see if Apple offers tools to easily disable subtitles temporarily in situations where I don’t want them. But most of the time, I imagine I’ll keep this feature enabled.

Are you interested in using iOS 27’s new captions feature for videos? Let us know in the comments.

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