With over 1.8 billion monthly active users, Instagram Reels sits firmly in the top 1% of social media platforms.
By adding captions to your videos, you can make your content more engaging, accessible, and shareable. With the algorithm favoring captivating Reels, the potential to go viral and grow your audience is unmatched.
This is the ultimate guide for adding captions to Reels!
Instagram Reels are short, engaging videos designed to entertain, inform, or inspire. They allow creators to share content up to 90 seconds long, complete with music, text overlays, and effects to captivate their audience.
Reels are Instagram’s answer to TikTok, with a powerful algorithm that helps your videos reach new users beyond your followers. They’re perfect for showcasing creativity, building your brand, or going viral.
Shortly: Reels are a must for anyone serious about growing on Instagram.
Around 85% of people scroll Instagram with the sound off. Captions make sure your content still gets through, even in silent mode.
If your video doesn’t have captions, viewers might scroll right past.
Text on Reels grabs attention instantly and keeps people watching longer. Captions guide the story, emphasize key points, and keep viewers invested from start to finish.
The longer they watch, the better your video performs—and that means more views and engagement.
Instagram’s algorithm favors content that gets attention and holds it. Captions make your videos easier to understand, more accessible, and way more engaging, giving the algorithm all the right signals to push your Reel to a wider audience.
It’s like handing the algorithm a cheat code.
Answer: Launch the Instagram app and upload your video. Open the “Stickers” menu and select “Captions” for them to automatically appear on your video.
Pro Tip: Tap the text to change/edit the appearance of your video’s captions.
You’ve got many styles to choose from.
You can add multiple captions to your Instagram Reels just by inserting multiple text boxes. To their on-screen length, just swipe up to reveal the timeline and insert the timestamps over there.
You can add as many captions (or as much text) as you need.
Now, you may be wondering…
To edit captions on Instagram Reels, open Instagram, create a Reel, and use the “Aa” icon to add text.
Or, just follow this step-by-step list:
You can enable automatic captions in settings, but they can’t be edited after posting. For more control over captions, you can use third-party tools like SendShort.
Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t allow editing captions once a Reel is posted, but you can delete and re-upload it.
👇 This section is about adding those fancy, colored subtitles on top of your Reels.
Answer: To add subtitles to Instagram Reels, create a free SendShort.ai account and upload your video. The AI automatically detects and adds them.
Just like on Instagram, you’ve got many models to choose from.
However, the upside of SendShort in comparison to Instagram is that it adds these super fancy, modern subtitles — those that keep users hooked to your content.
Pro Tip: SendShort adds subtitles in any language.
That’s it 🙌!
If your Instagram captions are missing, here are some quick fixes.
The best fix is to update the app.
Often, missing captions are caused by bugs that get resolved in the latest app version, so updating Instagram is the quickest and most effective way to restore captions.
Sometimes missing captions are due to a bug.
Ensure you’re using the latest version of Instagram, as updates often resolve these types of issues.
Clearing the app cache can solve many display issues.
A weak connection can sometimes prevent captions from displaying. Switch to a stable Wi-Fi or data network to see if captions reappear.
Close Instagram completely and reopen it.
This simple reset often helps refresh and display captions correctly.
If captions are still missing, try editing the post and re-adding the caption. This can trigger Instagram to save and display it correctly.
If the problem persists, uninstall and reinstall the app. This will reset the app without affecting your account data.
These steps should help restore your Instagram captions!
SendShort is the best Instagram Reels captioning app because it simplifies the entire process of creating engaging and polished captions, offering features that go beyond Instagram’s built-in tools.
Here’s why it’s your top choice:
Answer: Yes, you can add captions to Reels by using Instagram’s “Captions” sticker or manually typing text.
The “Captions” sticker automatically generates captions from spoken words in the video.
Answer: Yes and no. Instagram gives you the option to add captions to your videos, but not fancy subtitles.
For subtitles, use SendShort to add them automatically in any language.
Answer: No, Instagram Reels doesn’t have automatic captions.
You can do it with SendShort, or with the “Auto-Captions” sticker when uploading Reels.
If captions aren’t showing on your Instagram Reels, it could be due to one of these reasons:
Thanks a lot for reading this,
David Ch
Head of the Editing Team at SendShort
Daniel is the head of our research and statistics team. With Daniel's help, our team keeps up with the latest stats and financials for your favourite social media company.
