·4 min
Captions that match the reaction
Short-form dies without readable lines. Auto captions only work when they’re timed to the laugh, not the transcript dump.
Viewers watch on mute. If the punchline isn’t on screen, the clip doesn’t travel — no matter how good the face cam was.
Dumping a full transcript onto a 9:16 frame is worse than no captions. You want short, timed lines that ride the reaction: the gasp, the curse, the “no way.”
That’s why captioning belongs next to the cut, not in a separate app two hours later. Generate while the audio is still in working memory, style for the feed, export once.
TikTok, Reels, and Shorts all reward the same thing: vertical framing plus words that hit at the right beat. Get those two right and the rest is distribution.