In today's digital age, more and more businesses are turning to social media platforms to share their achievements. Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for businesses, with over 25 million business profiles globally. In addition to sharing photos and videos, many organizations use Instagram the ‘Live’ and ‘Story’ functions to share real-time content with their followers/consumers. In 2019, Instagram enhanced these features by adding a live captions add-on. Captions get added to a video transcribing what is said into readable text on screen. These appear in the video in real-time. Whilst this feature is growing in popularity, social media users are becoming concerned about the accuracy of Instagram live captions.
In this blog, we explore the accuracy of Instagram’s Live Captions and provide tips for U.S corporations to deliver the results they, and their followers, want on social media.
Instagram introduces live captions
Since first introducing their live captioning feature in 2019, it has continually grown in popularity with over 92% of Instagram users choosing to watch videos without sound for a variety of reasons. So how does it work?
Well, it has become a part of the ‘sticker’ feature on the app and automatically adds captions so that truly everyone can understand the video content. The main benefit of captions is that the audience, especially those with hearing impairments can engage with audio content that needs description, making it accessible to them. The live captions are generated using Automated Intelligence (AI) technology and are available on multiple social media platforms, including, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and others.
How about accuracy?
Instagram captions are quite accurate. They have been tested by different organizations in which AI-generated captions were, 95% accurate on average. In this case, accurate is referring to the consistency of the captions and how correctly the sentences are being transcribed. Interestingly, Instagram’s live captions are far more accurate than other social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, which only received around 50% and 80% accuracy respectively in similar tests.
Benefits of captioning
Instagram captions are a great way to make your business content more accessible to a wider audience. Over 15% of adults in the US population have a hearing impairment, which is why adding auto-generated captions to stories and reels on Instagram is vital for improving inclusivity. Video content including product launches, marketing campaigns, and explanations of how the product or service works are just some examples of how captions can benefit your business.
Live captions can also improve your SEO strategy when being used on your organization’s website video content, as additional text can be found in search engine results. Research has discovered that captioning of videos can improve the user experience through content that engages your audience and communicates your message more effectively. Not to mention, using this feature supports inclusivity and engagement for all potential customers.
With the positives, unfortunately, comes the negatives to live captioning. For example, the fact that the app sometimes fails on accuracy leaves followers who rely on captions struggling to keep up with fast conversations. AI can only perform to a certain level; when competing with background noise, the speaker moving in different directions, and equipment quality, it can lead to odd sentences being generated. Inaccurate live captions can be very frustrating, especially when important company updates, news, or product launches are being shared.
The app’s caption generation works, but, it can make mistakes.
Corporate social media and the limitations of live captioning
Live captions on Instagram are a great way to provide captions for video content. They are easy to use, free, and can be turned on and off during any broadcast. But can they improve your business’s social media strategy?
Live streaming for your business can be a fantastic way of expanding the reach of your content. However, you want to deliver accurate captions and your followers want a seamless viewing experience. However, the viewers might be a bit confused by you over pronouncing words or speaking slower than usual so the captions can keep up and accurately generate what is being said. Without adopting these approaches, sadly, the captions may be incorrect. Another challenge businesses may face will be when collaborating with influencers and other business accounts with a large following, which can add further layers of complication such as accents, speed, diction, and more.
Internationally focused organizations also need to consider these captions currently only work with English language content. Even if you are speaking in a different source language. Thankfully, there is a solution if you are looking for multilingual captions - the right agency could offer over 220 languages.
If your Instagram live captions are inaccurate, you can try these three steps:
- First, contact Instagram via the app to report an issue and get them to resolve the problem.
- Secondly, if it is not content you have created, you can contact the person or company who created the video and report it to them.
- Finally, you can use trustworthy services like Wolfestone Group to create accurate them on your behalf.
Captioning of videos on social media platforms, like Instagram, has become increasingly popular amongst followers and content creators to boost accessibility and inclusivity in the non-English speaking, hard of hearing, and deaf communities. However, there is a lack of accuracy when it comes to in-house captioning on social media apps, and would you trust it when promoting something as important as your business? So why not choose a multimedia agency specializing in AI and human Live Captioning? Translation services like Wolfestone Group can ensure all captioning is accurate and can avoid any embarrassing mistakes.
If you are interested in learning more about our translation services or need help translating an upcoming caption, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We would be happy to assist you!
Information corrects at time of writing: 25/05/2022
Useful Links
Percentage of people that watch Instagram videos without sound
The number of businesses in the US that use Instagram
