How to Download YouTube Subtitles as Text
You may have considered subtitles to be an “extra” tech feature or something nice to have, but not necessary. While you can put out videos that don’t have subtitles, you will be limiting the reach your videos get and potentially miss out on having your message seen places you want it to be visible. We’ll briefly cover how to download YouTube subtitles as text files, and why it’s important.
Subtitles are an easy and highly effective way to make your video content more accessible to a wider audience, especially with the tech tools we have at our disposal today. It’s no longer something out of reach for even those with limited time and budget.
Why use subtitles?
First, multilingual subtitle options benefit people who don’t speak the audio’s native language. This can be important when trying to reach people in various geographic areas. It’s ideal for content you want to be shareable, as well, since you don’t know who your viewers will pass the video on to.
Other people who benefit from subtitles include:
The Deaf and hard-of-hearing community
Those who watch videos without sound, whether out of preference or necessity
Fast fact: Did know? On mobile, specifically, 92% of viewers watch videos with the sound off, and 50% say that captions are important for this reason.
Plus, viewers can use the text from those subtitles. For instance, if you’re trying to Spanish, watching a video with Spanish subtitles could be a helpful tool and study aide. YouTube offers viewers the option to download a video’s subtitles as text, provided that the video’s creator has already added those subtitles to their video file.
How to download YouTube subtitles as text files
There are many reasons someone would want to take the audio from a YouTube video and save it as a text file. It can help with offline viewing, studying, note-taking, and research. Here are the simple steps to do it:
Go to your desired YouTube video. You may have it saved in your library, especially if you’ve already seen it before. Check your History to see videos you’ve watched recently, or do a search for the terms that best describe it.
2. Check to make sure the YouTube video has captions/subtitles added with the “CC” button. Not all will. Although, the number of videos with this option is growing.
3. Go to “Settings” and click on “Subtitles/CC” to see which subtitle languages are available. You may be surprised to see the various options on a video, and that some videos can have many subtitles choices to enjoy.
